THE GAME BIRDS OF INDIA, BURMA AND CEYLON. 907 



during the season 1898-99 and that he himself only shot one 

 Jack out of 461 Snipe shot by him in 1899-1900. 



In Cachar and Sylhet, as elsewhere, the numbers varied consider- 

 ably in different seasons. One year Capt. (now Col.) Melville 

 and myself shot 94 couple of Snipe in three days in a bheel near 

 the station of Silchar and got 15 couple of Jack amongst them 

 and that season we must have shot forty couple of Jack at least. 

 One day I got 8 to my own gun. Most years however saw only 

 ten to a dozen killed during the whole cold season and some times 

 the number fell to two or three. 



In the Brahmapootra Valley I found them very rare and I do 

 not remember even seeing more than a couple in one day. 



The above statistics suffice to show, I think, that the Jack Snipe 

 when compared with the Pintail and Fantail in India is a very 

 much less common bird, though in particularly attractive spots it 

 may occasionally be met with in some numbers. It is also possibly 

 more common West and North of Allahabad than it is to the South 

 and East and gets rare again in the further North and North- West, 

 but our records from the extreme North- West are very meagre. 



As to the time of arrival of the Jack Snipe in India and the 

 average date of its departure therefrom, we have not yet sufficient 

 data on which to declare anything very definite. The probability 

 is that it arrives much the same time as does the Fantail and also 

 departs with that bird, possibly arriving a little later and never 

 staying on quite so late as the latest Fantails and Pintails do. 

 Mr. Stoney's records are the only ones we have upon which one 

 can work out a theory of any value. During the ten years 

 these records cover, he notes, the earliest Pintail as being shot on 

 the 27th August and the average date of the first bird as about the 

 middle of October. The Fantails also arrived in early October, 

 but no Jack Snipe were shot until the 3rd of November. Where- 

 as, also, his last Pintails and Fantails were shot in April, the last 

 Jack was killed on the 10th March. 



The Jack Snipe is a very particular bird in his choice of an 

 abode, and when shooting over a large tract of country the 

 sportsman will find that but few spots are affected by the Jack, 



