and, at least I know in my case, a frantic rush now and then to
avoid a monstrous horse leech, which animals in these paddy
swamps abound, and eagerly follow man, horse, or cattle to
'drink their blood,' like our old friend Fi-Fo-Fum in 'Jack the
Giant Killer.1
" In the Bengal Presidency the shooting is far more agreeable
than in Burma. There is seldom need to wade at all, or at
most not above the ankles. By the time the Snipe are abundant
and in good condition, the paddy has been reaped, and
the fields arc nearly dry, and walking over them is easy and
pleasant. The swampy margins of 'jhils' are also a favourite
resort of these birds, as also open patches in forest, where
springs of water well out through moss-like turf and weeds,
and keep ever moist and soft the rich black soil.
" It takes some time to understand Snipe ground, and many
a fruitless weary hour has been passed by novices in India
plunging and splashing, and labouring and wading through
rank herbage, coarse grass and reeds, or beds of rushes, interrupted
by pools of water, and such like spots, without seeing
a Snipe probably all the day. It is not easy to describe the
ground this bird selects. In paddy fields I found, where the
stubble showed the mud freely—that is, was not too thick—
and where puddles of water were interspersed, fringed with
short, half-dry, curling grass and small weeds, there the Snipe
were sure to be if in the country ; and note, if these puddles
were coated over with a film of irridescent oily matter (the washings
of an iron soil) the chances were greatly increased of a
find. Off the alluvion, or dead fiat country which borders
both sides of the Ganges for various distances, the paddy
cultivation in Orissa and Bengal is confined to the lower parts
of the undulating soil—the ridge and valley being termed
in Chota Kagpur the ' tarn' and the ' dhoon' respectively.
The dhoons arc narrow, and occupied generally by a single
row of rice fields, divided by small banks, called 'bunds,' 'als,'
or ( arees* in different parts of India. The sportsman can walk
on the dry turf along the margin of these 'khets,' and shoot
the Snipe as they rise from the muddy stubble, without wetting
the sole of his foot. The fields, generally in a single row, are
irrigated in dry weather from a tank excavated at the higher
end of the valley ; through the lower embankment of this
reservoir the water slowly percolates, keeping the field next
it, and perhaps the next one to that also, perpetually moist.
It is to these spots the Snipe arc driven as the season advances,
and the country dries up, and here may be found perhaps fifty
in an acre of ground."
Of the food of this species I have already spoken when
dealing with the Pintail, and its familiar note of " psip," uttered
as it rises, often looking back as it goes, though sounding
apparently (to judge from the very different syllables employed
to represent it), very different to different ears, is too well known
to require further notice.
Speaking of the bags made, or asserted to be made, of this
species, Mr. Reid remarks :—
" I have heard of fabulous bags—ranging from 8 0 to over 1 00
couple in a day—being made by a single sportsman ; but the
largest I can vouch for is one of 57 couple made by myself
in the Lucknow division. It included, however, I I couple of
'Jacks;' but, though I was looking for them, not a single
specimen of cither the Painted or Pintailed Snipes."
Now, though I have never myself made even quite as large
a bag as Mr. Reid, as in the days when I mostly shot this
present species we used large bore muzzle-loaders, with heavy
charges, the rapidly repeated concussions from which always
knocked me up both in Quail and Snipe-shooting before the day
was much more than half over, I do not consider bags of 1 00
couple even at all fabulous ; and I am quite sure that any good
shot, with a rather heavy small bore breech-loader, with small
charges, might, to this day, easily bag his hundred couple in
the day in many places in Upper India.
I have never myself seen a Snipe perch on either bush or tree ;
but sportsmen have assured me that in the hills they have
occasionally seen this; and it is a well-ascertained fact that,
during the breeding season, they do in Europe often so perch
high up upon large trees, as well as on lower perches of a
similar nature, and thence emit their well-known nuptial call,
tchik-tchak, tchik-tchak.
In many parts of the country, but specially in the neighbourhood
of Calcutta, numbers of both kinds of Snipe are
caught in horse-hair nooses, thousands of which are set between
tufts of grass and in little natural or artificial lanes in the rushes,
on favourite and frequented feeding grounds. It is also said that
they are caught in nets, but I never was able to learn the
modus operandi, and I cannot conceive how this can be done
unless possibly with a high standing net at night, the birds
being worked against the wind, so that they go straight away
without rising high.
ALTHOUGH NO European has, I believe, yet taken the eggs
of this species within our limits, a few do certainly breed in
Kashmir. Mr. Brooks saw and heard* one drumming (as it
is commonly called) in orthodox style over a marsh there, and
numerous eggs have been procured by native collectors.
This humming, drumming, neighing, or bleating note, as it is
variously designated, a sound quite sui generis^ and never to be
* Mr. Brooks writes: "I saw a Common Snipe soaring away above the
swamp where I took the Mallard's nest ; and, as it was making its breeding, bleating,
and drumming noise, doubtless its mate was sitting on Us nest below, though I
failed to find it."