THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 587 



under ordinary circumstances the Pintail will also often be found 

 on adjoining dry grass lands and even in jungle. 



Snipe-shooting is much the same whether one is after Fantail or 

 Pintail and in Bengal in nine cases out, of ten one covers the same 

 country in pursuit of either or both. 



Hume seems to have had unfortunate experiences in Bengal, for 

 he writes : — " In one single spot in the Meerut District, on the 

 Boorka Ganga, in the neighbourhood of Hastinapur, to my cer- 

 tain knowledge, over 700 couple of common snipe were bagged 

 during December 1850 by different parties who visited the place 

 . . . . I have never heard of any one place in Bengal, Burma or 

 Southern India where anything like this bag of Pintail could have 

 been made by any number of guns. " 



This statement of Hume's is, of course, very far wide of the 

 mark ; in Bengal there are many such places, in Assam a few and 

 in Burma and Orissa others. 



In the Sundarbands of Barisal, Khulna and Jessore there are 

 many wide sketches of mingled bheel and rice cultivation where a 

 party of seven guns would have to shoot very badly in order to miss 

 getting 700 couple in ten days' shooting. In the famous Kanchra- 

 para j heels in the eighties and nineties 100 couple of snipe to one 

 gun has often been exceeded in a day's shooting and this country 

 was so well stocked that it stood shooting day after day. I well 

 remember shooting there once in 1883 with three other guns. 

 We unfortunately missed an overnight train and in consequence 

 arrived late, so that when we got to our ground we found that the 

 two best beats were already taken. In spite of this, our bag that 

 day was 170 couple, whilst the other parties of shooters, who came 

 into the station as we were waiting for our return train back to 

 Nadia, shewed sticks as follows; the first party of three guns 180 

 couple, the next party of two guns something over 100 couple and 

 a third party of four very bad shots, 48 couple. Here was a bag 

 of something over 500 couple for one day and I believe one 

 might have gone on shooting at the same rate for many days. 



I do not think it is any exaggeration to say that in the season 

 Kanchrapara must furnish over 1,000 couple of snipe month after 

 month. 



