o92 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



that when snipe were wild it did not kill the birds hit, the range 

 of the weapon being insufficient. 



The probable answer to the question is let each sportsman find 

 out what suits him best, and when he has found out stick to the 

 weapon as long as he can. If he starts with no bias for any spe- 

 cial bore, let him commence his shooting with a 1 6-bore, and he will 

 probably eventually find this light enough to cany, yet giving a 

 sufficiently good pattern and with enough penetration to satisfy all 

 his wants. I would not, however, ever advise a youngster to start 

 with a 20-bore, much less with a 24. 



On the table the Pintail does perhaps often rank as inferior to 

 the Fantail. At their best the two birds are undistinguishable, 

 but after a drought and when shot in scrub, the Pintail is often 

 comparatively dry eating, a result which might be expected 

 from the diet on which he has been living. 



The bill of the Pintail snipe is not nearly so sensitive as that of 

 the Fantail, and accordingly, we find him feeding far more on 

 comparatively dry ground, boring less in the ground and indulging 

 more on whatever he can get above it. A very large proportion of 

 his diet consists of tiny snails and similar " shell fish " which are 

 to be found in and about the roots of grass, etc., on damp ground, 

 or else climbing up the blades to some height. But besides these 

 and the worms, caterpillars and other soft items of food, all of which 

 are also eaten by the Fantail as opportunity arises, the Pintail will 

 eat grasshoppers, small beetles, and other equally hard substances, 

 and I have shot birds in dry scrub with the stomachs full of a small 

 kind of flying ant. 



JSfidification. — Very little is known aboirt the nidification of the 

 Pintail Snipe, though very recently Dresser has obtained its eggs 

 through Russian collectors. 



Seebohm visited its breeding grounds when they commenced to 

 arrive in the first week of June, but he appears to have left before 

 they begun to nest. 



Prjevalsky gives a good account of its breeding on the Ussuri, 

 though he calls it G. heterocerea. He says : — " In the latter half of 

 April the birds choose their nesting localities in the thinly over- 

 grown marshes, and their peculiar courting commences. Rising 



