THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 585 



diagonally, that is more South and West, than the Fantail does 

 South and East and also to migrate further South as a body. Thus 

 at no period of its stay in India is the Fantail altogether absent 

 from the Northern portion of its range but in December and 

 January hardly a Pintail is to be found in the extreme North-East 

 of India, nearly all the birds having gone further South hj that 

 time. In February they recommence working North, and by 

 March have again deposed the Fantail from its position of numerical 

 superiority in North-Eastern India. 



The Pintail is as nocturnal in its habits as are other snipe and 

 like the latter normally migrates, by night, but a curious instance 

 of diurnal migration has been reported to me by Mr. L. W. 

 Middleton. He writes: — " On September 8th I went out in the 

 morning to see if the snipe were in and shot six and put up over 

 thirty, so, in the afternoon, about 5 o'clock I again went out, 

 thinking I was going to have a merry time but I only saw three 

 and of those two rose straight up and joined a whisp of eight or 

 ten which were crossing over at the time. I only found two more 

 and then sat down to watch, and whilst so doing actually saw five 

 rise and join flights of others which were passing over. I saw fully 

 ten small lots came into view and make across the Hills in a 

 South- Westerly direction. Next morning I went down early and 

 trudged for an hour without putting up a bird, but I must have seen 

 several hundred crossing overhead, one lot alone numbering fifty 

 to sixty birds. The day was a bright sunny one and exceptionally 

 hot." 



Mr. Middleton's letter was written from Gauhati, and the Hills, 

 he refers to, are the Khasia Hills. It is interesting to note how he 

 remarks on these snipe working from one hill range to another 

 instead of down the valley in which he was shooting. 



The Pintail Snipe differs a good deal from the Fantail in its habits 

 and will often be found in situations never frequented by the latter 

 except when driven there by heat or by being over shot. Very 

 favourite haunts of the Pintail in Assam are the wide waste lands, 

 of sun grass worn down by village buffalos to an average height of 

 some 18 inches, here and there the land being almost bare, whilst 

 in patches elsewhere the grass may be three or four feet high. 



