334 THE EASTERN SOLITARY SNIPE, 
to this latter. So too in Western Turkestan, Severtzoff affirms 
that it is Ayemalzs that occurs, and that this is a good species. 
I cannot discover where any description of this supposed species 
has been published. I doubt the Northern Chinese, and 
South-Eastern Siberian species being distinct, and I believe 
that the Japanese, Chinese, Mongolian, Siberian, Tibetan, East- 
ern and Western Turkestan birds are al/ either soltaria or 
hyemalis, and I incline to the former alternative; firstly, because, 
years ago, [examined Pekinese and Japanese specimens (one of 
each) sent to me by Mr. Swinhoe, which, though differing 
slightly in tints and proportions from the Himalayan specimens 
I then had, seemed to me to be specifically identical ; secondly, 
because Stoliczka obtained a pair of veritable sofztarza, on the 
Ist of November at Sanju, on the other side of the Himalayas, 
in the south of Eastern Turkestan, and Major Biddulph pro- 
cured it between Sarhad and Punja in Wakhan, and it is 
extremely unlikely that the Western Turkestan birds should 
be different from these ; and, ¢/z7dly, because solitaria is a species 
that varies very considerably in colour, size, and markings, as 
well as in number of tail feathers ; and Mr. Bogandoff, on whose 
authority, apparently, the distinctness of hyemalis rests, and who 
is said to have compared Siberian with Indian specimens, cannot 
possibly bein a position, (they have only three specimens, I think, 
at Leyden) to know the extent to which soltaria does vary. 
Of course this is merely argument. Asa fact hyemalis may 
prove to bea good species, but for the present my readers may, 
I think, assume that it is probably so/z¢taria that extends to all 
the countries above enumerated. 
ALTHOUGH THE Eastern Solitary Snipe may be met with at 
great elevations,—I have myself seen it as high as 14,000 feet, 
and I believe considerably higher ; Henderson shot one on the 
Chagra Stream, above the Pangong (elevation 15,000 feet) as late 
as the 8th of October; and Major Biddulph writes that several 
were shot by his party in the narrow valley, (elevation 13,500 
feet), leading from Tanksi to this same lake,—still even in June 
I have found them as low as 9,000 feet, and the great majority 
of the birds descend earlv, so that some are to be found in all 
the low valleys by the first week in October, and in early 
seasons by the middle of September. I have no record of any 
being shot in the Dun or other similar submontane tracts 
before the middle of November ; but these are such frightfully 
feverish localities in the autumn, that no one shoots there before 
that time, and from Mr. Guthrie’s experience at Benares, I dare 
say some begin to arrive in all these places much about the 
same time as they appear in the lower Himalayan valleys, well 
inside the hills. 7 : 
They do not seem to care much for cover. I have constantly 
seen them along the margins of little streams, in bare rocky 
