THE PINTAIL SNIPE. 343 
&c., the great majority of the Pintail Snipe are in all parts 
of the Empire migrants. They begin to arrive during the 
latter half of August* throughout Continental India and 
Burma (and I may add the Malay Peninsula) ; but they are 
’ 
somewhat later in the Indian Peninsulat; and even further 
north and east, though some arrive earlier, the main army of the 
birds does not appear until September, and it is detachments 
and divisions of this which mainly, I believe, later invade the 
Indian Peninsula. And this accounts for the fact that, through- 
out those parts of Continental India where they are common, 
alike in the hills and plains,f they are much more numerous 
at the commencement and close of the season, and much less 
so from the 15th of October tothe 15th of March, whereas 
this is just the period when they are uniformly most common 
in the Peninsula. In Burma and the Malay Peninsula I 
* A few notes bearing on this point may be quoted :—-‘‘ Snipe appeared here 
(18 miles from Gauhati), yesterday, the Ist of September, in great numbers. The 
natives said they came a fortnight earlier, but yesterday was the first day I 
saw them myself.” 
‘*Pintailed Snipe, first seen by me this year (1879) at Khulna, District 
Jessore, Lower Bengal, onthe 22nd August, when I bagged it, and thus obtained 
my first Snipe of the season.” —Z. ¥. Rainey. 
‘* G. sthenura comes in about the middle of August around Moulmein. A 
register, kept by Captain Dodd, the Master Attendant of Moulmein. a keen 
sportsman, showed the 17th August as the earliest date on which he has shot 
his first Snipe, during the last seven or eight years. 
“In 1878, he and I procured four couple between us on the 17th August.”— 
C. T. Bingham. 
‘* Excessively common in Lower Pegu from the end of August to February, after 
which period it becomes rare. I have shot specimens up to the end of April.”— 
Eugene W. Oates. 
‘*T have shot the Pintail at Deesa, as early as the 24th of August. I sent you 
the head, neck and tail of one shot on the 29th of that month.”—Z. A. Butler, 
Writing from Klang, in Malay Peninsula, about 3° to’ North Lat. under date 
2nd of August, Mr. H. C. Syers, Superintendent of Police, says: ‘*‘ The Snipe 
have not yet appeared, but we are expecting them every day as they come in by 
the middle of August.” 
+In the Southern Konkan they first arrive in October. The earliest date on 
which I have ever shot them was the 2nd of October.”—G. Vidal. 
‘The Pintail is, I consider, our commonest Snipe in Belgaum, and it arrives 
about the end of September or the beginning of October.” —F. S. Laird. 
‘*T have shot the Pintail all over Southern India (south of about the 12° North 
Lat.); they come in about October or November just as the paddy crop is sown.” 
—Albert G. Theobald. 
+ ‘‘The Pintailed Snipe is exceedingly common in the valley of Nepal, in 
winter, arriving at the end of August and migrating northwards about the begin- 
ning of May; it is most abundant in September and October, and again in March 
and April.” —F. Scully. 
**In a paper elsewhere published (P. Z. S., 1865, pp. 692-695), I have given some 
particulars of the occurrence of this Snipe about Barrackpore, where it is very 
plentiful, more so than the next species, arriving in September, and being 
replaced by that about the end of October or beginning of November.”— 
C. Beavan. 
** G. sthenura is certainly the earliest to arrive in any numbers in Bengal. About 
Calcutta, G. sthenura seems to disappear in December and January, doubtless 
migrating further to the south-east,” (really to the sowh-west), ‘‘ I have lately in 
those months examined bags of 30 to 50 birds without finding one specimen. It 
abounds again, I believe, in February and March.”—W. Blanford. 
