THE WOODCOCK AND BRITISH SNIPE IN CEYLON. 73 



in common with the jack snipe, G. Gallinula, which I am 

 informed, on a very good sportsman's authority, is frequently 

 shot there. This species again, requires scientific identifica- 

 tion, and I am very sanguine of obtaining specimens next 

 season when I shall hope to have the pleasure of introduc- 

 ing it to the notice of the Society. 



The distribution of G. Scolopacinus in India during 

 the cold season, has, it appears, lately been exciting 

 some attention. I notice that Mr. Hume (Stray Feathers, 

 p. 235) found it, with G. Gallinula, in Sindh, to the 

 exclusion of the (i Pin-tail," and, as regards his opinion 

 that it is the snipe of Bengal, Stenura being 

 t( scarcely ever found" there, " Z." a well known Indian 

 naturalist, remarks in the " Field" newspaper of February 

 8th, 1873, that he cannot agree with Mr. Hume and writes, 

 loo tit. , " that of the myriads of snipe which are 

 " brought yearly to the Calcutta provision bazaar, I know 

 " from long experience that one occurs as commonly as 

 u the other," and adds, further on in the same notice, that 

 Mr. W. T. Blandford remarks (J, A. S. Bengal, 1869, p. 

 104) that he has never seen a specimen of G. Stenura, the 

 Pin-tail, from central and western India, and quotes, in 

 addition, another writer in the same journal (1871, p» 215) 

 who says that G. Scolopacinus is the snipe of Nagpore ; that 

 at the Nilgherries and at Bangalore all the snipe he had 

 killed were Pin-tails, whereas at Madras in December, the 

 two species were in about equal proportions, These 

 observations, therefore tend to shew that the Common or 

 British snipe affects the north-west (Sindh) and west of 

 India, to the exclusion of the Malayan or Pin-tail, and 

 that they both inhabit the Eastern side of the peninsula in 



