ground for it, as, for instance, throughout Lower Egypt, the Fayoom, and around the lake near 

 Erment. There are perhaps few localities better suited to this bird than the large marshes of 

 Lower Egypt, where, in February, I have killed over forty couple in a day. By the end of that 

 month their numbers rapidly decrease ; yet towards the end of March I one day killed twenty 

 couple in the same marsh. Up the Nile at Dendera I have met with them as late as the 24th 

 of March." 



According to Loche, Gallinago coelestis is tolerably numerous in Algeria from November 

 to March, and straggling pairs have even been known to remain there to breed ; and Mr. 

 Taczanowski remarks that it appeared to be most abundant in the valley around Lake Fezzara 

 near Constantine. Mr. C. F. Tyrwhitt Drake found it common in Eastern Morocco ; and Favier 

 observes that around Tangier it is very plentiful from October until February. It appears to 

 range as far south as Gambia ; but in Southern Africa it is replaced by a tolerably closely allied 

 form, Gallinago cequatorialis, Riipp. Our Common Snipe, however, inhabits Madeira, the Canaries, 

 and the eastern, central, and western groups of the Azores ; and Mr. Godman says that he saw 

 four or five examples in a marsh at Flores which he fully believes were breeding there, though 

 he did not succeed in finding a nest. 



In Asia the common European Snipe is found as far east as Japan. Mr. Blanford, who 

 met with it in Persia, says (E. Pers. ii. p. 282) : — " It is common in winter in suitable localities. I 

 saw three or four, and shot a couple on the 2nd of May at Hanaka, near Karman, at about 

 8000 feet above the sea. The birds may have been in their breeding-haunts ; but it is just as 

 possible that they were merely halting during migration ; for some do not leave the tropical 

 swamps of India before the beginning of May." According to Dr. Severtzoff it is found on 

 passage and in the winter in some parts of Turkestan, and breeds also in some portions of the 

 country ; in Eastern Turkestan, Mr. Scully says, it is tolerably common in the neighbourhood of 

 Yarkand in the summer, and breeds there, but never remains in the winter. Referring to its 

 occurrence in India, Dr. Jerdon writes (B. of India, iii. p. 675): — "Both the present species 

 and Gallinago stenura are very abundant in India during the cold weather, and are not, in 

 general, discriminated by sportsmen. Snipe arrive in the north of India in small numbers early 

 in August, but not in any quantity till the end of September and October. A few are generally 

 found in the Calcutta market early in August, and in the Madras market by the 25th of the 

 same month ; the last birds do not leave before the first week of May. In Upper Burmah, 

 where I noticed the very early appearance of the common Swallow, Snipe came in small 

 numbers towards the middle or latter end of July; but I very much doubt their breeding 

 there, or in the marshes of Bengal, as Adams states that they do. They frequent marshes, 

 inundated paddy-fields, rice stubble-fields, edges of jheels, tanks, and river-courses, feeding, 

 chiefly at night, on worms and various aquatic insects. Their pursuit is a favourite sport 

 throughout India; and vast numbers are occasionally killed. I have heard of 100 couples 

 having been killed to one gun in the south of India ; and 60 or 70 brace is no very uncommon 

 bag for a first-rate shot in some parts of the country." It is found in Ceylon in winter, and is 

 stated to be very common in the swamps about Aberdeen, in the Andaman Islands. The 

 Common Snipe is met with generally throughout Siberia. Von Middendorff found it breeding 

 abundantly on the Boganida, where he first observed it on the 27th May, and on the 21st June 



