Trans-Baikalia. Later however he found it on the Argun River
(which divides Trans-Baikalia from that part of Northern
Mongolia, called Kheluntsyan on English Maps) in about
5 0 ° North Latitude. It was very plentiful there in the spring,
and remained until the females were nearly ready to lay,
but did not nest there, probably proceeding further north for
that purpose. 1'rjevalski never appears to have seen this species
in all his wanderings in Mongolia, the Valley of the Hoangho,
Kansu, &c. Nor did Schrenk, Middendorff, or Radde meet
with it apparently anywhere in Northern or Eastern, or South-
Eastern Siberia. Indeed the representative American form, the
so-called Red-brcasted Snipe (Macrorliamphus gjiseus) has been
obtained in the extreme east of Siberia. Clearly we have yet
to discover both the summer and winter head-quarters of this
curious species.
ABSOLUTELY nothing is known of the haunts, habits, flight,
voice, or food of this species; but we may surmise that,
during the non-breeding season, it is chiefly to be found
on or in the neighbourhood of sea coasts, as is the case
with the Red-brcasted Snipe of America. From its bill
conspicuously spatulate, and covered for the terminal inch
with nerve pits and channels, indicating a bill more sensitive
even than that of the Common Snipe, we may infer that it
frequents soft mud flats and oozy ground. Its comparatively long
and very pointed wings, together with the ample development
of the pectoral muscles, indicate a rapid and powerful flight;
while as to its food the sensitive character of the bill shows
that this is almost e x c l u s i v e l y sought for beneath the surface,
and will probably consist of worms, small sand-eels and softbodied
C r u s t a c e a.
In shooting birds like the present species, Godwits, Curlew,
Whimbrel and many others, along the mud flats that fringe our
coasts, and almost fill many of our harbours, sportsmen should
never forget the extremely treacherous character of these banks,
and the dangers that attend incautious attempts to retrieve
wounded birds. I have several times myself, when walking on
what appeared to be sound ground, with only about a foot of
mud over it, suddenly sunk another foot or more, and once I
went in right to my waist, and so remained helpless until dragged
out, (leaving my boots behind) by the united efforts of two
boats' crews. But I might just as well have lit upon some
deeper mud hole, where I should probably have sunk before aid
could have reached me.
Tickcll tells how. a boatman of his was all but lost on one
of the mud banks in the Roopnarain, near the junction of
that river with the Ilooghly, and in my coast shootings I have
had many stories told mc of men who have thus perished.
Tickcll had dropped a bird on one of these banks. " The
tide had turned to rise. I was much averse to the man
getting out of the boat to fetch the bird, but the others
seemed to think the mud just there was safe, and it certainly
was, so far that the man did not sink higher than his knees,
and would have reached the bird safely; but it fluttered a
few yards further on his approach, and thus led him plunging
and labouring on, till in a moment, to my horror, he sank up
to his waist. He had come suddenly on a spring or percolation
of water, which rendered the mud perfectly quick or semi-fluid.
His ghastly look, as he writhed round towards us, in a vain
attempt to reach the boat, I shall never forget to the last day
of my life. The men with me were fishermen of those parts,
and pretty well accustomed to accidents of the kind ; but
even they seemed to think this a bad case. They shouted to
the sinking man to keep perfectly still, and with strenuous efforts
we managed to pole and push the dingey to within three yards
of him. They then threw the large steering oar and a spare
bamboo sideways over and beyond the man, and on these
rested another bamboo, the near end of which was over the
dingey's gunnel. On this bamboo the man rested by his arms
and chest, and ceased to sink deeper. As the tide rose wc
drifted near enough to touch him; but all our efforts were
unequal to extricate him from the mud, and as the water began
to mount to his shoulders I was in unspeakable dread of
what would follow in five minutes more if we could not get
help. Happily, the young flood was bringing up, as usual, a
perfect fleet of boats, hastening to the various market towns
up the Roopnarain ; and after much shouting and offers of
( bucksheesh' two boats were induced to come to our assistance,
and by crowding their beaks or prows together with ours,
four or five men were able to grasp the unfortunate fellow and
regularly "man-handle" him out, quittepom iepeur. But what
pear! Of all the ghastly deaths that imagination can conjure
up, sure none can be so horrible as smothering, by inches, in
the mud! It made me think then, and often years afterwards,
what an exquisite luxury, did we but appreciate it, is that of
simply breathing 1"
This treacherous character of mud banks is a very real anil
ever present danger, and the not unheard-of practice amongst
some European sportsmen, of compelling their boatmen, to et
armis, to retrieve wounded birds off mud-banks, cannot be
too strongly deprecated. In one instance, to my knowledge,
it resulted in the loss of two lives.
In no case, no matter how thin the mud appears in the place
first tried, should any man be allowed to plunge into one of
these banks without a good long thick bamboo in his hands.
Not only on the coast, but in many of the larger rivers
hundreds of miles from the sea, most dangerous dul-duls or
quick sands occur; indeed are in the Ganges most common.