THE BIRDS OF THE ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDS, 149 
I only met with one small party of six on Car Nicobar in September, 
These obligingly ranged themselves in a row which enabled me to get the 
whole of them at one shot, All but one still showed a lot of red on the 
breast, 
With this species too, stragglers remain throughout the year, as Mr, Hume 
had specimens shot in June and July. 
Car Nicobarese “ Suit.” 
1479, Trinca PLATyRHYNcHA, Temm, Blanf., IV, p. 279; ‘Str, Feath.,” 
II, p. 298. . 
The Broad-billed Stint appears to be rare in the islands, Davison only met 
with one small party in the Andamans, and did not see it in the Nicobars. 
I kept a look out for it but never saw any, 
1484, GALLINAGO C@LEsTIS, Frenzel. Blanf., 1V, p. 286; “Str, Feath,,”’ 
II, p. 295. 
The Common Snipe is extremely scarce in the Andamans, A very few are 
- shot yearly, but I doubt if they are one to a hundred of the Pintails, There 
was not one among 300 odd birds that I shot during the season. 
1485, GALLINAGO STENURA, Kuhl, Blanf., IV, p. 289 ; “ Str, Feath,,” II, 
p. 294, ; 
Snipe arrive in the Andamans in September, and remain till May; the best 
of the shooting, however,is over by December asarule, Fifty couple is, I 
believe, about the best bag that has been obtained at Port Blair by a single 
gun, but the limited amount of ground is so much shot over that one is very 
lucky to get 20 or 30 couple once or twice in a season, 
The latest date on which I saw a snipe was May 12th, but odd birds have 
been killed in June and July. Mr, Hume thought that the few couples 
that remain might possibly breed, but I think this is extremely improbable, 
A year or two ago I was told of the taking of an undoubted snipe’s nest 
in Ceylon ; the finder, not an ornithologist, flushed a snipe in May and 
shot it, and looking down found a nest with four eggs exactly where the bird 
rose, I saw the eggs, which were those of Excalfactoria chinensis, but nothing 
would persuade their owner that they were not the eggs of the snipe! An 
instance of how mistakes arise, 
In the Nicobars, where there is no paddy cultivation, snipe are not numer 
ous, a few occurring here and there round fresh water ponds, 
1487, Gauttnaco cattinota, Linn, Blanf., IV, p. 292 ; Finn,, Jour, A, 8, B, 
Vol, LXVI, Part II, No. 2, p. 525, ‘ 
Only a single specimen of the Jack Snipe has been recorded from the 
Andamans, shot on November 25th, 1896, by Lieut, H. Turner of the Suffolk 
Regiment, Iam told it was the first snipe he shot in the Settlement ! 
1497, HyDROCHELIDON LEUCOPTERA, Meisner and Schinz, Blanf., IV, 
p. 308, 
Obtained at the South Andaman by Mr, de Roepstorff, 
