THE WOODCOCK. 315 
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perhaps in smaller numbers, in the Sheveroy and Javadi* Hills 
in the Salem District, in the Anamalis, and in the Burghur and 
Hosentr Hills in the Coimbatore District. To the Western 
Ghats, as near Kanara,t and again to the Eastern Ghats,t 
a few only seem to resort; but it is more numerous in the Garo, 
Khasi, and Naga Hills, in Manipur § and Sylhet, || and in 
the Tipperafl and Chittagong** Hills. 
But while these, and possibly other localities, in regard to 
which I have no information, such as the Vindya, Satpura, 
-Aracan and higher Tenasserim ranges, constitute its regular 
‘*When driven they break cover either as soon as flushed, or else keep taking short 
flights in front of the men and dogs till they reach the foot of the shola, when they 
fiy rapidly off to the next, or back towards the head of the jungle. When they have 
been much disturbed, they become very cunning, and will not show themselves out- 
side of the cover, but keep flying back over the heads of the beaters, and on one 
occasion I saw one bird that had been flushed by a dog, rise a few feet in the air, 
where it hovered till the dog had passed on, and then drop into the same place 
ain.”—W, Davison. 
* «¢T have shot them on the Sheveroy and Javadi Hills in the Salem district, 
also on the Anamali, Nilgiri, Burghoor, and Husinoor Hills in the Coimbatore 
district. I have also heard of their being shot in the Wynad. 
** It is a cold weather visitant, arriving about the middle of November and leaving 
again in February or March. As a rule they are rare, a few only being found in 
suitable localities.” —Albert G. Theobald. 
+ ‘* Colonel Peyton informed me that he had only seen four during a long residence 
an Kanara (lo—12 years), but I don’t think any one in these parts ever thinks of 
regularly searching for the birds.”—ZA. S. Lazrd, 
~ ‘* The Woodcock. I am informed by Captain Blaxland. has several times been 
seen, and on one occasion shot, on the higher plateaux of Jaipur.”—V. Ball, 
§ ‘I have shot the Woodcock in Manipur, the Khasi Hills, near Shillong. and the 
Naga Hills near Kohima, and I have seen it in the Garo Hills. In all these districts 
it appears to be a migrant. appearing about the end of October, and leaving at the end 
of March. In Manipur I once shot two in the same day from the howdah in heavy 
grass jungle while beating for deer ; in other places I have generally seen them on the 
banks of running streams in heavy tree jungle. The localities they affect may 
easily be discovered by noticing the borings which they make in searching for worms. 
In the Naga Hills itis common. The Angami Nagas snare them by marking the 
spots, generally an open glade in a wood, where they come out to feed ; they 
surround the place with bushes leaving two or three runs, in each of which they place 
two sticks arranged like an inverted V, and from the apex suspend a fine noose. The 
bird is caught by the neck.” —G. Damant. 
| During the cold weather a few brace of this species are procurable in suitable 
localities in the Sylhet district. They frequent the small rivulets that run amongst 
the densely-wooded Zee/ahs, which cover a good part of the northern portion of that 
district. The sportsman walks up the bed of arivulet with a few beaters on each 
side, and gets a snap shot occasionally. I have known of four brace being got in a 
forenoon, but a brace now and again is the general outturn of cock-shooting in those 
parts. They arrive in November and leave in February.” —F .R. Cripps. 
1 The late Mr. Valentine Irwin sent me a Woodcock killed in the Tippera Hills, 
where he told me that it was not very uncommon in winter. 
**¢¢Ttis a rather noticable fact that the Woodcock is found, though rarely, along the 
hill margins of the eastern side of this District (Chittagong). We put up one at Puttia 
one day in March 1878. Mr. Lowis shot two near the Mahamani in January 1878, 
and two others in 1877 at Fenna. Inthe same yeara Woodcock killed itself here in 
the station by flying against the telegraph wires. Mr. Martin put up a brace of 
Woodcock from a ¢e/ah near Kutubcherra in December 1876, and flushed others in 
the same locality on three subsequent occasions, namely in December 1877, and in 
March and June 1878, Again Mr. Lowis shot another last month, and saw a 
second.” —/, Fasson, 
So 
