THE COMMON OR FANTAIL SNIPE. 361 
where at Lake Ashangi (elevation 8,500 feet, 12° 30’ North 
Latitude), Blanford found it still common in the beginning of 
May:-  - 
THE COMMON SNIPE, I am disposed to think, arrives, broadly 
speaking, from three weeks to a fortnight later than the Pintail. 
There is no general arrival of even the advanced guard of the 
Fantail until quite the end of August, while the Pintail con- 
stantly appear in considerable numbers with the third week 
of that month. The question is complicated by the fact that 
individual stragglers of the Common Snipe often appear along 
with the first Pintail detachments. Thus Butler shot both 
species at Deesa on the 24th of August; but, as a rule, they 
only begin toarrive in appreciable numbers in September™* ; they 
are not well in until the close of the month, and are even later in 
Southt and in Burma.t 
They mostly leave the plains before the close of March§, 
but some linger everywhere much later, especially in the Sub- 
Himalayan and similar well-watered and well-wooded tracts, and 
* “*The Common Snipe arrives in the valley of Nepal about the Ist of Septem- 
ber, and retires early in May. Although it may be shot in the valley in any month 
between the dates above indicated, it is most numerous on its migrations, being 
more common from September to about the middle of November, and in March 
and April. I found it rather scarce inthe Nawakot district in November. It is 
always found in the wet fields and swampy grounds in the central parts of the valley, 
and seems to avoid the crop fields and the ground at the foot ofthe hills. It 
occurs in the valley in about one-third of the numbers of stLenura.”— 7. Scully, 
‘*The Common Snipe begins to make its appearance towards the end of September, 
but it is not until the end of October that it appears in any numbers in the Lucknow 
Division.” —Gzo. Feid. 
**On the Eastern Narra (South-East Sindh) they begin to arrive in September, 
and leave in April.” —Scrope B. Doig. 
‘The first full Snipe was shot here (Jacobabad) this year on the 28th of August. 
but it was some time later before any considerable numbers appeared.”—P. F, 
Maitland. 
‘Snipe migrate from colder climates to the plains of India about the first week 
in October.”—F% HA. Baldwin. 
+ ‘* JT have shot them all over Southern India south of the 12th degree North 
Latitude; they are cold-weather visitants, arriving about October, and leaving again 
during March and April, some few remaining until May or even later, They are quite 
common.”—A. Theobald. 
+ ‘*The Common Snipe is comparatively rare ; ¢#e Snipe of Burma is the Pin, 
tail. The Fantail does not appear till the cold weather is well in, say in December- 
and then but few will be found in even a large bag of Snipe, It stays till late. I 
have shot them in March.” —Zugene Oates. 
‘*The Common Snipe comes in about the end of September. I note that the 
first I shot near Moulmein were a couple on the 23rd September 1878.”—7. C. 
Bingham. 
§ ‘* Very common in Faridpur in suitable localities; for the first half of the 
season, October to December, they are a good deal scattered about, and are 
found in standing paddy, marshes and such like places ; but from January they are 
only to be found in ‘‘bhils’” and marshy hollows, if these have grass growing 
over them. By the end of March very few birds are to be seen.”—F% FR. Cripps. 
**The majority leave (the Lucknow Division) again about the middle of March, 
though some may still be found up to, if not later than, the 15th April. On that date, 
this year, while birds-nesting along the banks of the Goomtee, I was surprised to 
find a number of them frequenting patches of rice cultivation all along the river 
margin,’—Geo, Reid. 
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