cannot learn that anything similar lias been observed,*—indeed
the birds arrive, if anything, earlier in the extreme south than
In the north. And this is in no way surprising, for the
migration is not a north and south, but a north-east and southwest
one; and it is not the birds from Pegu and Moulmcin,
but from countries north-east of it that supply the Malay
Peninsula, just as Bombay is supplied, not by birds crossing
the Himalayas due north of it (where this species is unknown),
but due north-cast of it, viA Nepal and Kumaun, or further
east still.
The time of their departure varies a good deal according
to season and locality ; but I believe that in Peninsular India
in average years the majority leave before the middle of March, f
and in Continental India before the middle of April, but in some
years they are earlier and in some later ; and alike in north
and south some remain always much later, in some places well
into May, and in a good many hilly localities a very few seem
not to migrate at all.
Like the Common Snipe, the Pintail is sometimes met
with in twos, threes or single birds ; but in all favourable localities,
it is met u ith in considerable numbers, which, though feeding
and, as a rule, rising when disturbed separately, are all obviously
acting in concert, arriving and leaving any feeding ground
en vtasse. At the beginning of the season, in Lower
* It IS true that Bingham says, writing from Moutmein : " It is very strange that,
nt the beginning of the Snipe season, one gets only the Pintail, and at the end
chiefly the Faulail, with only one or two perhaps of the former."
But this requires a little qualification, according to others; and if actually about
Moulmcin, Pintail are scaicei about the middle of the cold season, this does not
appear to be at all the rule inland IN Tenasserim or Pegu ; and if it be so at
Aloulmein.it is probably due to tlie fact that the majority of the birds seen IN the
Anilamans and Nicobars, would naturally arrive viA that portion of Tenasserim.
+ Theobald, already quoted, (note p. 343B says that IN the Peninsula south of
the 12° North Lat., ''they leave in March, though some stragglers are shot
in April."
Again others say
" In Belgaum the Pintail appears to stay on through the hot weather until the
THTMDERSTORTBS come. Of course after Febiuary it is confined to the patches (chietly
found in jungle^) of irrigated rice-land, and on being 1 shikaraV soon takes refuge
in the jungle. Most of the birds probably leave about the end of February when
the country begins to get very dry ; but 1 have found that in jungle tiacts some
stick to the irrigated rice until the hot weather storms come. These are very
uncertain—sometimes commencing in March, sometimes in April or even the end
of May. Probably a few birds stay on during the laius."—J. S. Laird.
" On the 22ml April this season I bagged four and a half couple, and saw several
others. They were in excellent condition and showed no signs of breeding."—
E. A. Butler,
"The majority of the Snipe leave the Southern Konkan in March ; but a few hang
about the neighbouihood of the tidal creeks till April and even May."—G. Vidal.
" In Mysore, Snipe remained common till the month of April—y. Davidson.
But Major Charles Mclnroy, in a note quoted a little further on (note, p 345),
shows that, on the 26th of March 187S, they had mostly left Mysore.
In the Calcutta market these Snipe are generally common up to the 15th of April ;
after this they are scarce in some years. In others they are common, quite up to
the close of that month. A few may be seen in some years in May, bat never,
I am told, more than a few.
Bengal, when the birds are arriving and moving on, you may
visit a haunt, well known as a favourite one at that season,
morning after morning without seeing a bird. Suddenly one
morning the place is alive with them ; next day, and perhaps
for two or three more, again not a single Snipe—then again
numbers, for a day or two, and so on, until the whole country
is thoroughly filled with them.
Great difference of opinion exists even amongst those best
qualified to judge as to the habits, flight, and voice of the
Pintail; and I can only, with all diffidence, submit my own
views on these matters—the result of a somewhat extended
experience,—referring my readers at the same time to the
opinions (some of which I quote below*) expressd by others.
* " It rises with a sharp, loud cry, unlike the ordinary Snipe, and its flight is
heavier. Found in green grass, under a grove of trees, on the margin of the
lake."—J. V. StttTt.
" Sthcnura, according to my experience, does not frequent the same ground as
the common species ; glass land, interspersed with rushes, is its favorite retreat. Its
flights, too, are more laboured than in the other species ; it can at once be distinguished
on the wing from this circumstance alone."—y. C. Parker.
"The birds obtained by me were not only shot upon the same ground as scolo-
/acinus, viz., along the edges of rice fields, but, in many instances, the two species
rose simultaneously, and it was not, until 1 had shot the birds and examined them,
that I distinguished the species. As regards the flight, I must admit that,
occasionally whun solitary individuals of sthantra have risen, the flight has struck
me as being more laboured and heavier than in seolopacinus; but then again,
when the two species were on the wing at the same time, I did not observe any
difference in their flight. As to the call I have never noticed any difference in Hie
' sca-a-ape,' of the two species "—A'. A. Butler.
"It frequents rather drier ground than the Common Snipe, being often found
in fields grown with potatoes, mustard, radishes, &c.; and it proclaims its affinity
to G. solttaria by occasionally associating with it, in the colder months, about the
grassy ground at the foot of the bills. But it is also constantly found in company
with the Common Snipe. Its flight may be slightly heavier than that of the latter
species, but where both birds occur IN numbers, I believe the most experienced
sportsman will be quite unable to distinguish gallinaria from sthemtra 011 the
wing."—y. Scully,
" A cold weather visitant to Furreedpore ; common ; it IS frequently found ¡11 dry
places, such as dry paddy fields, drains and the like, which gallinaria never is.
One that I shot .011 the borders of a MUSTARD field in the factory compound had
about a dozen caterpillars, from o-5 to 1 "25 inch long, in its gizzard ; this bird was
very dark coloured on its lower parts I shot a female, the last of the season, on
the 24th April 1878 ; she was flushed from a perfectly dry ditch at the back of
my house."—y. P. Cripps.
" I have arrived at the following conclusions :—
" First.—That the Common Snipe remains in Mysore considerably after most
Pintails have left ; and
" Secondly.—That this IS due to the difference in their habits qf feeding.
" Pintails affect short grass, paddy fields after the crop IS taken off, and so
on, whereas Common Snipe are always to be found IN exceedingly muddy ground—
the banks of drying-up tanks, &Q. On shooting them their bills will almost
invariably be found covered with mud, whilst the Pintails appear to be able
(1 suppose from the nature of the ground which they frequent) to keep thcir's
comparatively clean. The Pintail will be found round tanks, where the grass
reaches to the water's edge—the Fantail, when the water recedes and reaches
mud, pure and simple. And this accounts for the Common Snipe remaining
longer ; the habitat of the Pintail dries up in this part of the country by the end
of February or so.
" I will give one or two proofs of what 1 have advanced :—
" I.—On the 26th of March 1878, I shut round the edge of a tank in which the
V I