MALAYAN ORNITHOLOGY. 181 



knowing that his spoil differs in tife. least from the well-known 

 Snipe of the British Isles. 



But if, while resting from his labours after a few hours' plodding 

 through mud and water under the blazing sun of those parts, he 

 will turn out his well-filled bag and carefully examine its contents, 

 it will be found that, with hardly an exception, the birds are " Pin- 

 tails." 



The tait, instead of being of soft rounded feathers, as is the case 

 with the English bird, has eight rigid pin-like feathers on either 

 side, though I have seen specimens in which these stiff feathers 

 were but seven in number. This is the most marked characteristic 

 of the species, and at once determines the identity of a specimen : 

 but the Pintail also has the axillary plumes more richly barred than 

 its European brother — though, unless one had some of each kind 

 laid side by side for comparison, the differences between the two 

 species would probably pass unobserved. 



It is only at a certain season that Snipe abound in the Malay 

 peninsula : from May to July, both months inclusive, it is hard to 

 find a single bird; but about the middle or end of August they 

 begin to arrive in Province Wellesley and Pulau Penang, extending 

 to Malacca and the extreme south of the peninsula, including Sin- 

 gapore, ten days or a fortnight later, though they are not found in 

 great numbers in any of these places until later in September. 



However, it is impossible to lay down a hard and fast rule, as the 

 migration is much influenced by the weather ; but it may safely be 

 said that the great body of the Snipe do not come south until the 

 commencement of the wet and stormy period which proclaims the 

 breaking-up of the south-west monsoon. 



Towards the end of April they return north to their breeding- 

 grounds ; and I doubt if any remain to nest in the peninsula, though 

 in Perak I have shot a few stragglers as late as the second week in 

 May. 



With reference to the habits of the Pintail, my experience is that, 

 as a rule, they are not found in any number in the paddy-fields — 

 that is to say, when the crops stand high ; and though I once, at 

 Pcnaga, on November 6, 1877, in about three hours, bagged twenty- 

 five couple on paddy -land, still it was the only occasion I am able 



