360 THE COMMON OR FANTAIL SNIPE. 
Malay Peninsula it is rare to a degree. Out of several hundred 
Snipe carefully examined by Davison, only two, one shot 
near Malacca (2° North Latitude), and one in the island 
of Tonka (8° North Latitude), proved to belong to the 
present species. It has not been recorded or sent, so far as I 
know, from Continental Siam, or the countries eastwards of 
this, (though it probably straggles to most or all of these) or 
from Sumatra, Java, or Borneo; but it seems not uncommon in 
the Philippines (where it has been procured in the islands 
of Luzon, Bohol, Leyte, &c.,) and Japan, and is common in 
Hainan, Formosa, and throughout China during the cooler half 
of the year. Prjevalski met with it at Lake Hankain the 
Ussuri country, where some few breed, in the valley of 
the Hoang-ho and South-East Mongolia, in the former of 
which it is a rare breeder, as also probably in the latter, and 
at the Koko-Nor in Chinese Tibet. It is a summer visitant 
throughout Siberia, breeding commonly as far north as the 
70th degree North Latitude, on the Boganida. In Eastern 
Turkestan it is similarly a common summer visitant,* as it is 
likewise in Western Turkestan where some, however, also 
remain in winter. Stoliczka obtained it at Punja in Wakhan 
in April. To Afghanistan and Beluchistan it is a winter visi- 
tant only, widely and universally distributed, but owing to the 
nature of the country nowhere met with as yet in large num- 
bers. Throughout Persia it appears to be common in winter 
in suitable localities, and some may breed there as it was 
observed in May near Karman, at an elevation of some 8,000 
feet. Westward it abounds in Turkish Arabia (Mesopotamia), 
Armenia, and parts of Asia Minor, and occurs also in Palestine. 
Throughout the north of Africa, as far south at any rate as 
the highlands of Abyssinia on the east and the Gambia river 
on the west (say approximately the 12th degree North Lati- 
tude), the Canaries and Madeira, the whole of Europe, 
including the islands of the Mediterranean, the Azores and 
Iceland, and the southern portions of Greenland, the Fantail 
occurs in suitable localities at one season or another, breeding 
for the most part north of the 50th degree North Latitude to well 
within the Arctic Circle, but occasionally further south, as 
in Algeria, the Atlantic Islands and perhaps even Abyssinia, 
_%* ‘The Common Snipe was tolerably numerous in the neighbourhood of 
Varkand in summer, where it was ascertained to breed. The bird was never observed 
in winter. It was found in the neighbourhood of marshy ground and inun- 
dated fields. This species breedsin May and June: the eggs—a good deal in- ~ 
cubated—were obtained on the. 12th June, and two young nestlings on the 16th 
of the same month. 
‘Two eggs measured 1°58in length by 1‘r1 in breadth, and 1°55 by 1°13. In 
form they are like a broad oval, suddenly pinched and pulled out to form the small 
end of the egg. They have a slight gloss, and the ground colour is dirty olive green. 
The small end is unspotted, the constricted portion of the egg has some largish spots 
of brownish, and the large end is nearly covered with confused blotches of brown 
and brownish black.”—-F Scz/ly. 
