.588 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



Shooting in Nadia in 1883 when I was stationed in that district 

 40 to 80 couple was not considered a heavy morning's bag for a 

 couple of guns ; in Hooghly the same and in some of the rice fields 

 quite close to the station bags of 75 to 125 couple to two guns was 

 almost a common occurrence. Indeed in any of the good snipe 

 districts of Bengal one does not call anything under 50 couple to 

 one gun a good bag for a whole day's shooting. 



In Orissa, I know of several bags of 100 couple to one gun 

 obtained in places which could have held several guns for several 

 consecutive days. Thus Mr. H. Cornish, to whom I have already 

 referred, is credited with beating 100 couple twice in a week on the 

 same ground near Cuttack. 



Mr. H. Reily is said to have shot over 100 couple to his own 

 gun in the same district and in Burma also over 100 couple has 

 been obtained more than once. Shooting grounds such as these 

 would furnish far more than 700 couple of snipe in a month unless 

 the powder was of a very curious quality. 



In some of the big Sylhet swamps bags of over 100 couple of 

 snipe to parties of three or four guns are sometimes made, but there 

 are few grounds which would give four guns five hundred couple 

 in 20 days' shooting. 



Cachar and the Assam Valley are even less productive of sport ; 

 in the former bags of 50 couple to a single gun are unusual and 

 in the latter though, one comes across birds almost in thousands on 

 rare occasions when they are migrating, the shooting is so difficult 

 that big bags are exceptional ; at such times also the birds them- 

 selves are on the move so that where one day the sportsman 

 cannot shoot and load fast enough the next day he may not be 

 able to scrape together five couple in five times that number of 

 shots. 



On one occasion I happened to be duck-shooting in North 

 Lakhimpur in the extreme East of Assam when an enormous flight 

 of snipe came in, both Pintail and Fantail. The day previous, we 

 had been duck-shooting over the three principal bheels of that 

 part of this district, perhaps putting up some 20 or so birds in the 

 course of a 12 hours' shoot but after their arrival we could hardly 

 move 20 yards without putting up one or more of them. That 



