THE PINTAIL SNIPE. 345 
Bengal, when the birds are arriving and moving on, you may 
visit a haunt, well known asa favourite one at that season, 
morning after morning without seeing a bird. Suddenly one 
morning the place is alive with them ; next day, and perhaps 
for two or three more, again nota single Snipe—then again 
numbers, for a day or two, and so on, until the whole country 
is thoroughly filled with them. 
Great difference of opinion exists even amongst those best 
qualified to judge as to the habits, flight, and voice of the 
Pintail; and I can only, with all diffidence, submit my own 
views on these matters—the result of a somewhat extended 
experience,—referring my readers at the same time to the 
opinions (some of which I quote below*) expressd by others. 
* «Tt rises with a sharp, loud cry, unlike the ordinary Snipe, and its flight is 
heavier. Found in green grass, under a grove of trees, on the margin of the 
lake.” —F. V. Sturt. 
‘* Sthenura, according to my experience, does not frequent the same ground as 
the common species ; grass land, interspersed with rushes, is its favorite retreat. Its 
flights, too, are more laboured than in the other species ; it can at once be distin- 
guished on the wing from this circumstance alone.” —F. C. Parker. 
‘«The birds obtained by me were not only shot upon the same ground as scolo- 
pacinus, viz., along the edges of rice fields, but, in many instances, the two species 
rose simultaneously, and it was not, until I had shot the birds and examined them, 
that I distinguished the species. As regards the flight, I must admit that, 
occasionally when solitary individuals of sthezwra have risen, the flight has struck 
me as being more laboured and heavier than in scolopacinus ; but then again, 
when the two species were on the wing at the same time, I did not observe any 
difference in their flight. As to the call I have never noticed any difference in the 
*sca-a-ape,’ of the two species.”,—Z. A. Butler. 
**Tt frequents rather drier ground than the Common Snipe, being often found 
in fields grown with potatoes, mustard, radishes, &c.; and it proclaims its affinity 
to G. solitaria by occasionally associating with it, in the colder months, about the 
grassy ground at the foot of the hills. But it is also constantly found in company 
with the Common Snipe. Its flight may be slightly heavier than that of the latter 
species, but where both birds occur in numbers, I believe the most experienced 
sportsman will be quite unable to distinguish galinaria from sthenura on the 
wing.”"—F Scully. 
‘* A cold weather visitant to Furreedpore ; common ; it is frequently found in dry 
places, such as dry paddy fields, drains and the like, which gal/inaria never is. 
One that I shot on the borders of a mustard field in the factory compound had 
about a dozen caterpillars, from 0°5 to 1‘25 inch long, in its gizzard ; this bird was 
very dark coloured on its lower parts I shot a female, the last of the season, on 
the 24th April 1873; she was flushed from a perfectly dry ditch at the back of 
my house.” —F. R. Cripps. é 
**T have arrived at the following conclusions :— 
‘* first—That the Common Snipe remains in Mysore considerably after most 
Pintails have left ; and 
<* Secondly.—That this is due to the difference in their habits of feeding. 
‘* Pintails affect short grass, paddy fields after the crop is taken off, and so 
on, whereas Common Snipe are always to be found in exceedingly muddy ground— 
the banks of drying-up tanks, &c. On shooting them their bills will almost 
invariably be found covered with mud, whilst the Pintails appear to be able 
(I suppose from the nature of the ground which they frequent) to keep their’s 
comparatively clean. The Pintail will be found round tanks, where the grass 
reaches to the water’s edge—the Fantail, when the water recedes and reaches 
mud, pure and simple. And this accounts for the Common Snipe remaining 
longer; the habitat of the Pintail dries up in this part of the country by the end 
of February or so. 
‘*T will give one or two proofs of what I have advanced :— 
**T,—On the 26th of March 1878, I shot round the edge of a tank in which the 
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