310 THE WOODCOCK. 
considerable numbers migrate during the colder months to 
hilly, well-wooded and watered regions all over the Empire, as 
far south as Ceylon on the one hand, and Tavoy (at least and 
probably much further) on the other. 
It does not appear to be common in Ceylon, but has been 
shot there on the higher hills; in the Assamboo Hills* it is 
fairly common; on the Palnis} rare. It is pretty abundant on 
the Nilgiris; and on the higher hills of Coorg, and occurs, though 
brought in for sale to Simla, one man sometimes bringing in three or four.”— 
A. O. Hume. 
“The Woodcock is rather common in the Upper Sutlej valley in the forests of | 
the lesser ranges between four thousand and ten thousand feet ; it breeds at and above 
Chini, and I think I have also seen it in Western Thibet.”—/. Stoliczka. 
**T have killed many in the lower valleys below Mussooree during the cold season, 
and a few in the Dun, in the Szwaliks, and I once bagged five in a single morning 
along the Lat-ka-pani below Almorah.”—A. O. Hume. 
‘‘ They are to be seen in summer in considerable numbers in all the higher hills 
north of Mussooree, where they breed near the snows. I have repeatedly seen their 
nests and eggs in former times. Later in the year they descend into the lower 
valleys, and may occasionally be shot anywhere in suitable places, right down to the 
plains,”—Frederick Wilson. 
‘*T took the nest, as mentioned in my paper, on the 2nd of July, in Kumaon 
near Kemo, elevation 10,000 to 11,000 feet, which is epposite the Namick Salt 
Springs.” —A. Anderson. 
“¢Common in Kumaun, resorting to the lower hills and valleys in the cold season. 
In May I have seen a Woodcock anda Moonal on the wing at the same time.” 
—L. H. Irby. 
“* In June 1855 I got a Woodcock, with nest and eggs, in Nepal at about 11,000 
feet elevation. It is usual to find the breeding birds further up and more out of the 
influence of the tropical rains in scrub rhododendron. I never before got one so 
near rain or the central region.” —B. Hodgson. 
‘*The Woodcock arrives in the valley of Nepal early in November, and leaves at 
the end of February. It frequents most of the smali woods in the central part of the 
valley, and may be found along the foot of the hills, where damp thin tree forest 
occurs. Its favourite haunts are the boggy bits of ground at the edge of woods. and 
in such a spot I shot a Woodcock in the Residency grounds within a few yards of 
some houses. It is not at all common in the valley, and can only be obtained by 
hard work and with the aid of many beaters.”"—F Scully. 
“‘The Woodcock breeds in the higher hills in Native Sikhim where my hunters 
have shot them in summer, though they have as yet failed to secure the eggs. During 
the winter they are not very rare in the lower valleys, and many specimens have been 
brought me. They go down right to the plains. I have had two or three killed in 
the Terai and one in the Bhutan Duars.”—Z. Mandelli. 
**T myself saw them regularly every evening at Rinchingpoon, in Sikhim, in 
November 1860.”—R. C. Beavan. 
* “* Woodcock are pretty common in the Assamboo Hills, but only at the highest 
elevations from November to March.”— Frank W. Bourdillon. 
+ **T flushed a Woodcock in the Kodaikanal in 1867. Afterwards one was 
obtained there by Mr. Levinge; but they are certainly rare on the Palnis.”— 
S. B. Fairbank. 
+ “©The Woodcock arrives later and leaves earlier than the Snipe on the Nilgiris, 
coming in late in October or early in November, and departing again at the latest by 
the end of February. They are never very abundant, but with the aid of a couple or 
more of bustling spaniels and a few beaters, a few can aimost always be had, when 
they are in season. 
‘¢ They frequent marshy ground and the banks of streamlets in forest. Though 
occasionally one is met with in the depths of the larger extents of forest, yet, asa 
rule, I think that they confine themselves to the outskirts and to the narrow strips of 
jungle running down the ravines between the hills, and which (the jungles and not 
hills) are always more or less marshy towards their bases. 
