winter quarters outside the Himalayas, there is not, I believe*
a single district, intervening between these letter and the former,
where single birds have not now and then occurred on migration.
Outside our limits Swinhoe tells us that it occurs throughout
China during the winter, but Pore David says that in the Northern
Provinces at least it is almost unknown, though he found
it breeding in Ourato in Mongolia, at Sichan near Pckin, and in
Moupin: It docs not seem uncommon in Japan. Prjevalskf met
with it in April on the Murni-ul Mounts in Mongolia, and tells
us that they breed in the Ussuri country, and arc very numerous
there during migration. In Southern and South-eastern Siberia
it appears in summer, and breeds in many places. In Yarkand
it must be scarce, as neither Henderson nor Scully saw or heard
of it, but Stoliczka procured one near Yarkand itself on the
lith of November. In Western Turkestan it is also somewhat
rare, and seems only to have been noticed there on passage.
Hutton told us more than thirty years ago that the
Woodcock was very common at Oucttaand Kandahar, arriving
in November and departing in May ; but, though a few have been
noticed, and a very few killed both in Northern and Southern
Afghanistan and Northern lieluchistan during the late war,
no one seems to have found them common anywhere. In
many parts of Persia they do seem very common during the
* I may extract a few notices of localities whence Woodcock have been
procured.
In a cocoanut garden on the Mysore Plateau, 65 mile* cast of Bangalore.—(G.
Aft Inroy). Seventeen miles south-west of Belgaum, when Snipe-shooting in some
rice fields about X'mas time. The fields were surrounded by jungle.—(J-S- Laird).
Masulipatam.—(J.rd.m). Goddam, in the GolcondaZemmdari.—(Me Master}.
A Woodcock was shot la^t Christmas day, about two miles from Tanna, by
R. D. Cairns, of the Oriental Bank, here. It was flushed in some bushes at the
foot of some low hills near some marshy ground.—(J. D. Inverarity.)
I was taking a stroll yesterday morning (4th November) through the I.yarree
Gardens, about two miles from Kurrachee when a Woodcock flopped lazily past me. and
settled in a held of lucerne grass about ten yards from where I was standing After
tinning round and round two or three times, as if trying to get out of the sun, it
rose and flew towards some Guava trees about twenty yards off, silting under one
of them. There was no cover, except some short grass insulTieieni: to hide the
bird, and I walked up and shot it.—(E A. Butler.)
Aligarh, Bitapui in Ovidh.—(A. Anderson). Bulandshahr, Agra, Mynpuri,
Cawnpore f /fume) Fyzabadand Khcrl.—(G. A'eid). Berhampur, Noakhali, Dacca,
Tippera.— ( Jerdon).
To my knowledge three veritable Woodcocks have been killed in Cachar.—
Colonel Graham, Deputy Commissioner, Dibrugarh, writes that a few are always
to be seen during the cold season, in suitable localities towards the head of the
Assam Valley.—Calcutta Market —tlilyth, Hume, Parker). Thyetmyo, Basscin,
Karenee Hills north-east of Shwaygeen — (McMaster). Thatone — (J. C Dans).
Kyekagaw, twenly-two miles from Rangoon, February 1S65.—(II. B. Davidson).
Moulmeiii-—(David BfOVM. Colonel). Just under the cone of Moolcyit.—(VV.
Davison).
On the 2Sth April 1S79, T flushed an undoubted Woodcock, among some willows
011 the bank of the Gyne River —(C. Bingham.)
Maiuogan, about 10 miles from Tavoy.—(II. B. Davidson).
Dr. Armstrong c.inght one in the Bay of Bengal in Latitude J,SQ 40' North, and
Longitude 92' 2S' East, on the iStli NOVEMBER 1S75.
cold season, and Colonel St. John has shot numbers there, five
one morning, out of a single small rose garden at Firuzabad.
Captain Bishop informs me that in January 1873, whilst
shooting near Baghdad in Turkish Mesopotamia, his party
bagged five Woodcocks in the date groves skirting the town, so
that here also they are probably pretty common, as they are
likewise in Armenia, Asia Minor, and Palestine.
To Lower Egypt it is a rather rare straggler, but further west
in Algeria and Morocco it appears to be more or less common
during the winter. Curiously enough it is a permanent resident
in the Canaries, Madeira, and the Azores. Excluding Iceland,
it is met with at one season or another throughout Europe
and the islands of the Mediterranean, mostly breeding in the
north (though probably not within the Arctic Circle), but some
few breeding in most countries north of the 45th degree of
North Latitude. A straggler or two have undoubtedly occurred
in the eastern portions of North America, and COLICS thinks that
such chance visitations are commoner than is usually supposed,
but the Neartic region is clearly outside its normal range.
IN THE Himalayas they begin to descend, earlier or later, in
October, according to the season, and I have shot one at only
about 7,000 fect elevation in the valley of the Sutlej as early as the
8TH of October. Outside the Himalayas, (as at the Nflgiris,)
they appear earlier or later in November, and leave earlier or
later in March, according to locality or season.
But all do not migrate at the same time; on the Nflgiris
fresh birds are continually dropping in at any rate throughout
November and December, and this continued migration is also
proved by the occurrence of specimens in the plains as late as
the end of December. It is curious that in all the cases in
which I have been able to ascertain the exact dates, birds
killed in the plains of Upper India have been obtained prior
to the 3RD of January, thus apparently proving that it is only
on their southward journey, and not on the return trip, that they
linger by the way.
Whether all the birds visiting the Empire south of the
Himalayas are natives of those mountains, or whether a portion
are migrants from more northern regions, is a problem that has yet
perhaps to be solved ; although, for reasons to be explained
further on, I do not believe in many foreign birds reaching us.
Cover and running water are what in India the Woodcock
most affects ; you may find them alike in the middle of deep
forest or thick nngal jungle near the banks of some rushing
hill streamlet, foaming and sparkling in its rocky bed,
where, save a few tiny velvety corners, there seems no single
spot in the neighbourhood where they can possibly feed ;
and again in clumps of low scrub in a treeless opening, where
Q I