906 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NAT VEAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



reliable. Fortunately we are now in a position to give actual 

 figures showing the proportion of Jack Snipe to other Snipe shot 

 in many parts of India, sufficient to allow us to give a very close 

 general estimate of their numbers as compared with the Fantail 

 and Pintail. 



The most carefully compiled table I have received up to the 

 present is one sent me by Mr. K. F. Stoney of the P. W. D. who 

 has been good enough to let me have a complete account showing 

 the snipe shot by him during the last ten years, 1901-2 to 1910, 

 in the districts of Chingieput, Nellore, Madura, Bezwada, Vil]a- 

 puram, Ellore and Tanjore. From this most interesting table we 

 find that out of 7,131 snipe shot only 60 were Jack and that these 

 were distributed fairly equally throughout the various districts of 

 the Province. Shooting in Cannanore Major Wall, I. M.S., was 

 even less fortunate in coming across this little snipe, for, out of 427, 

 snipe shot, he records that there was only one Jack (B. N. H. S., 

 xv., p. 722). 



Again Mr. H. Sauders, sending me notes on the comparative 

 numbers of the different species of snipe shot b} r him, says that he 

 got no Jack in Ceylon and that in Bangalore out of 274^ couple 

 of snipe only four couple were Jack, but that shooting round 

 about Lucknow Jack Snipe actually numbered no less than 40i 

 couple in a total bag of 74|- couple of snipe. It seems, therefore, 

 that although Tickell records them as being more plentiful in 

 Orissa than elsewhere, the same does not obtain further South. 



From the Deccan also we have- regular statistics compiled by 

 Mr. W. G-aye and given in this Journal, (Vol. vi, p. 418) for the 

 years 1888-90. There the total number of Snipe bagged is given 

 as 621 of which only 28 were Jack. 



In Bengal in 1883-84 I kept an account of 2,000 snipe shot and 

 amongst these there were no more than 19 Jack of which 8 were 

 bagged in one day. In Behar, Inglis and others report them as 

 "rather scarce" and " rare. " 



In Upper Burmah, as we have seen, Oates reports them as com- 

 paratively common but Mr. K. C. Macdonald in writing on the 

 birds of Myingyan records that Mr. Prideaux shot only three birds 



