326 THE WOOD-SNIPE. 
of Lakhimpur in the Kheri district, and it has been obtained in 
the Nepal (formerly Oudh) Terai, further east. Beyond this 
I have no record of its occurrence, till we come to the Garo 
and Khasi Hills, where many have been shot ; and againa 
blank till we reach the far end of the Assam valley, where in 
the Dibrugarh district Colonel Graham tells me he used yearly 
to killa few. Strange to say in Manipur * they appear to be 
more common than in any other part of the Empire. 
To the Nilgiris, Coorg, the Wyndad, the Pulneys, Anamal- 
list, Sheveroys, and hilly parts of the Coimbatore District, 
they appear as numerically scarce, but regular, visitants during the 
cold season; but neither Mr. Bourdillon nor any of his friends, 
whom he consulted, seem to have met with it on the Assamboo 
Hills, and its occurrence in Ceylon, though possible, indeed pro- 
bable, has not, I believe, been satisfactorily established. 
Between its northern summer and southern winter homes, it 
has, unlike the Woodcock, been very rarely met with ; but Colo- 
nel McMaster tells us that he twice shot it at Russelconda in 
Gumsur. Blyth once obtained it in the Calcutta market, and Ball 
met with it once in South Sirguja, (Chota Nagpur f). 
To Burmah it also straggles. Colonel McMaster saw one kill- 
ed a few miles from Rangoon, and Davison flushed one near 
Malewoon, at the extreme south of Tenasserim. Doubtless, as 
time runs on, we shall learn more of this species, and it will 
prove to occur in many localities, such as Cachar, Sylhet, 
Tippera, Chittagong, and Arakan, &c., where, up till now, it has 
remained unobserved. It has not yet been found, so far as I 
can learn, anywhere outside our limits. 
THE WOOD-SNIPE does not, I think, as a rule, range nearly so 
high as the Woodcock in the Himalayas; in the summer even 
it is to be found as low as an elevation of six or seven thousand 
* My poor friend Damant wrote to me as follows:—“ This bird I have only seen 
in Manipur, where I shot several specimens ; all were killed in grass jungle from the 
howdah. It seems to be common there, as I killed five in one morning. It has a 
very slow. heavy flight and is easy to shoot. On the wing it is much more like a Wood- 
cock than a Snipe. it appears earlier than the Woodcock ; the first I killed was on 
the 14th September.” 
+ Mr. Albert Theobald says :— 
‘*T have shot this Snipe on the higher elevations of the Sheveroy Hills in the 
Salem District, and on the Nilgiris, Annamallis, and Guddasal Hills in the 
Coimbatore District. I have also heard of its being shot in the Wynad. It isa 
winter visitant, coming and going at the same time as the Woodcock and is decidedly 
rare. 
“Tt affects swampy and boggy grounds covered with grass, and the moist and 
damp sholas or belts of trees bordering the perennial streams, running down the 
bottoms of ravines. 
‘They are best flushed by good dogs, and are always seen singly ; seldom more 
than four or five can be shot in a day even inthe most favorable situation.’ 
+ Note also that Burgess, P. Z. S., 1855, p. 80, expresses a belief that Lieutenant 
Boddam of the Engineers shot a specimen of this Snipe at Nassick, 90 miles or so 
north-east of Bombay, on the 5th of January 1847. 
