For the table the Fainted Snipe, for some reason or other, IS
very inferior ; the flesh has often a sort of muddy taste, and
wants entirely that peculiar, and I think delicious, flavour of the
true Snipe, which, in its highest perfection, IS found only IN
the Jack.
THE PAINTED SNIPE breeds in almost all the localities IN
which it occurs ; in humid, well-watered districts, where it IS a
permanent resident, twice, if not three times, a year ; in dry
ones, once during its annual rainy season visit; and in very lowlying,
much-flooded tracts, once, or possibly twice, during the
drier portions of the year.
Reviewing the pretty abundant evidence now available, I
should say broadly that the majority bred once during the
height of the rains, and once during the middle of the cold
season ; but practically in one place or another, this species has
been found breeding in almost every month in the year ;* and,
* I may quote here a few of the notes I have received hearing on this point :—
" I was informed yesterday (I Ith February 1S70.), that there were some Snipe seen
in the bed of an almost dry river running past my bungalow here (Aurungabad), and
went down with my gun to gel them, .My informant pointed to a spot almost as
bare as the palm of my hand, ami incredulously I walked up to it, when up got a
Painted Snipe at my feel, which I shot, and at the report of the gun another rose
close by, which I also knocked over. A lad, who was with me, then pointed out to
me what was evidently the nest of the bird, {a lump of mud and slime trodden down
in the centre into a hollow) containing one egg, and 011 my return another egg, precisely
similar, was taken out of the female bird."—C. Gubbtns.
*'On the loth of May 1875, at ¡1 swamp, some 40 or 50 miles from Calcutta,
whither 1 took a run up by the E. B. R., I got a nest with four fresh eggs of the
Pftinted Stupe."—J. C. Parker.
'* Remain all the year round on the Eastern Nana. Breed in May, June, and July,
laying four eggs."—S. Doig.
" I took one nest near Calcutta towards the end of August."—A. 0 IFutite.
" I took numbers of the Painted Snipe's nests near Deesa in 1S76, in August and
September."—/:". A. Putter,
" On the 24th September 1874. 1 extracted a perfect egg from A female I had shot
(near Tonghoo)."—IVatditno Ramsay,
This year (1S74) Mr. Rainey took two eggs (which he very kindly sent me) on
the 30th September at Kluilna. Jessore.
Captain SheptMud obtained a nest with four eggs in September in Raipoor.
" On the 1ST December last, at (iorebundcr, about twenty miles from here, I caught
two young Painted Snipe, about half grown ; they were unable'to fly. Is this not
rather late to see birds so young?"—J. D. Inverarily.
" I have lately found Rhyac'ura bengaleasis breeding in this locality, (Chamrajnugger,
35 miles south-east of Mysore, and 40 miles north of the Nilghiris).
'* I shot a male bird, on the 5TH December, and on dissection found that it was
breeding : on 10th December a brace rose from some marshy grass of which I shot
one, winch proved to be a female. I found a fully formed egg in it, which would
have been laid in a d^y or two, the shell being still soft. I had a long search next day
in hopes of finding the nest, but without success. Still I think that I have found
enough to warrant my saying that R/irrre/itca bengalensis breeds in this locality in the
month of December."—M. Forbes Coussmaker,
Mr. Legge. writing from Ceylon, says of the Painted Snipe: "This species,
which is resident in this island (although I have no doubt its numbers are very much
increased in the cool season), appears to breed at all times of the year.
" To commence with the evidence of our pioneer, Layard says: 'The season
of incubation is from May to July.' That it breeds at or about this season is, I
know from personal observation and inquiry, quite correct. The late Mr. Advocate
Lorenz, (a much-lamented member of the Ceylon bar), who took A great interest in
while I have no doubt that they have two broods a year, I think
it possible that, under favorable conditions, they may have more.
I have only once myself taken a nest, and that was at the end
of August, in a small swamp on the Diamond Harbour Road,
about six miles from Calcutta. It was on very wet ground in
the midst of low rushes, and consisted of half-dry rush twisted
round into a tolerably neat and compact nest. It measured
six inches in diameter exteriorly, and less than four inches interiorly,
and the cavity, which had no lining, was a good inch in
depth. It contained two quite fresh eggs.
A nest of this species, sent me by Mr. A. J. Rainey, is
a large circular pad of mingled coarse and fine rice-straw,
some 6 inches in diameter and about 175 in thickness, and
with a central depression, perhaps three-quarters of an inch in
depth. It was taken on the 22nd September 1S71 at Khalispoor,
about \% miles from Khulna, in Jessore, on rather wet
ground, in a bare field from which a crop of rice had been reaped
about a month before.
Mr. S. Doig wrote to me some years ago : " I found a nest
of the Painted Snipe on the 23rd of June, in a small island in
the bed of the Nana. The bird leaving the nest fluttered
off as if her wing was broken, and after going some twelve
yards, lay with her wings spread out on the top of the weeds
near the shore. The nest, which was a slight depression in
the ground at the root of a tussock of grass, contained four
eggs, very much incubated. On the same island were a lot
of young ones just hatched, and on another island I found
young birds fully fledged."
Since then he has taken numbers of nests in May, June, and
July on the Eastern Narra.
Captain E. A. Butler has also taken many nests, and to supplement
my personal want of experience, I shall quote an
excellent account he formerly wrote to me of the nidification of
this species :—
"AtMilana, eighteen miles east of Deesa, I found several
Painted Snipe's nests this year (1876.) The dates upon which
they were discovered are given below.
"The nests, all of which were in the vicinity of rice fields,
were, in most instances, on the ground; but in one or two cases
birds, wrote me shortly before his death that he had once found a nest with young in
the month of April in the Western Province. It was situated in the grass of a bank
between two paddy fields. Again, a friend of mine observed a pair of old birds in
company with two young near a tank in the south of Ceylon. This was in May
1872. On his giving chase, the chicks took to the water and swam like ducklings.
In the beginning of September last year, I had several young brought me from
Wackweell, near Galle, a locality where I have found them more abundant than anywhere
else in Ceylon. These data corroborate Layard's statement, but they testify
at the same time to a wider period, commencing a month earlier and ending a month
later. With regard to the cool season, I am aware of eggs having been taken perfect
from birds in November, and of the young being captured in March. Mr Holdsworth
procured a beautiful egg from a wounded bird on the 31st December (P. Z. S.,
1872, p. 473), and I obtained another taken from a dead bird on the 29th March,"