362 THE COMMON OR FANTAIL SNIPE. 
in the North-West Punjab ; and in some seasons a good many 
are to be met with up to the 15th of April almost everywhere, 
and individuals may at times be seen alike in the north and 
south* of India, in May or even June. Of these late stayers, 
afew may be birds hatched late in the previous year, that 
would not breed that year, and that feeling no sexual impulse 
to migrate linger in comfortable quarters, but the majority 
I suspect are sickly or injured birds incapable of undertaking 
the long journey. 
On the whole my experience and inquiries lead me to 
believe that there are far fewer lingerers of this species than 
of the Pintail ;and that on the average, taking the country as 
a whole and a series of seasons, the Common Snipe both 
leaves slightly earlier and arrives somewhat later than the 
Pintail. 
Such at least is the conclusion I arrive at after prolonged 
enquiries, continued throughout many years. It will be dis- 
tinctly understood that I am quite aware that individuals, and 
even small parties of both species, may be, and have been, met 
with almost everywhere, where the species is common, equally 
early and equally late. What I mean is, that if the exact 
dates of the arrival and departure of every Snipe visiting the 
Empire for a series of years were recorded, the average date 
of the arrival and departure of the Fantails would prove, the 
former fully three weeks later, the latter a fortnight earlier than 
that of the Pintails. 
For the benefit of those disposed to aid in further elucidating 
this question, it should be noticed that the nature of the season 
greatly affects the question; that Pintails seem less subject to the 
influences of excessive or deficient rainfall; that a bumper rainy 
season in the north, while it brings in the Fantails earlier there, 
certainly delays their arrival in the south; that such a season, 
followed as it generally is by a prolonged cold weather, detains 
all Snipe beyond their average dates ; that the early setting in 
of the south-east monsoon takes them away earlier ; and that 
the prevalence of southerly winds, towards the latter half of 
the rains, in Upper India at any rate, delays their appearance, 
*«¢T have shot them on dry, grassy plains, and also once in a young tope in front 
of the Vellore Railway Station in May and June. and at another time in a babool 
(Acacia aradica) plantation in Palamcottoh in April and May ; but the birds were in all 
these cases in very poor condition, and hardly able to fly. At the latter place I saw 
them for the first time sitting on ground, which had not sufficient grass to give 
them cover.” —A. Theobald. 
‘“*About the middle of March Snipe begin again to collect in whisps, and by 
April Ist, warned by the first blasts of the hot winds, they are away to other climes. 
I find a note in my game-book of a strange occurrence. On May 2nd, 1871, 
when out tiger-shooting, and when the hot weather had regularly set in, I shot 
seven Snipe, and flushed several more on the edge of a tank near a village named 
Goorsora in the Lullutpore District. What had caused these birds to delay their 
departure so late I cannot imagine. I remember that, when cooked, they appeared 
to be thin, and wanting the flavour for which Snipe are so justly famed.”— 
3. H. Baldwin. 
