GALLINAGO NEMOEICOLA. 



815 



Concerning its distribution in India, we do not learn much from any author, save Jerdon, who writes as 

 follows : — " This Solitary or Wood-Snipe is found in the Himalayas, the Nilghiris, Coorg, and occasionally in 

 the Wynaad, and other elevated regions of Southern India and Ceylon (?) ; it is also said to occur in consider- 

 able numbers in the Sharunpoor district below Hurdwar, and generally in the extensive swamps at the foot 

 of the Himalayas .... It is by no means common or abundant anywhere, and on the Nilghiris but few couples 

 are shot in general in one season." Hodgson procured it in Nepal, whence there are specimens of his in the 

 national collection. I find no record of it from the south of India in the writings of observers in ' Stray 

 Feathers/ but we have Mr. Hume's authority that Mr. Davison has frequently shot it in the Nilghiris. 



It has lately been recorded from Tenasserim ; and its occurrence there has considerably extended its 

 hitherto solely Indian habitat. Mr. Hume's note of it is : — " Davison flushed a specimen of this species in a 

 bit of thick jungle on the banks of a little stream near Malcwoon. He has shot numbers of this species on the 

 Nilghiris, and is, he says, perfectly certain of the identification." 



Habits. — The Wood -Snipe is an inhabitant, as its name implies, of jungle, being found in damp spots on 

 the borders of forest, in swampy brushwood, near streams flowing through woods, &c. Jerdon remarks that 

 "it flies heavily, and, having a large expanse of wing, is not unfrequently taken for a Woodcock." Mr. Nevill 

 notes that it is found in Ceylon " among low bushes at the edge of swampy patna-lands." I am unable to 

 furnish any detailed information concerning its habits, as I have never met with it myself ; nor am I able to 

 speak of its nidification, as no data touching it have as yet been published. 



The accompanying woodcuts illustrate the difference in the legs of this species and the Woodcock, and 

 are given for the information of local students. 



Leg and foot of Scolopax i-usticula. 



Leg and foot of Gallinago nemoricola. 



