. Indian sporting birds . ogether, the side ones are very strikingly distinct,and though they are variable in number there are always at leasteight normal ones in the centre. Mr. Stuart Baker was the first to recognize this bird as anIndian species; he shot one himself at Dibrugarh in 1903, andhad a skin sent him from the Shan States in December, the birds should have been killed in these districts isnatural enough, for the natural haunts of the species are EasternSiberia and Mongolia, Japan, and China, whence in winter itgoes to the Philippines, Borneo, and the Moluccas. One would,t
. Indian sporting birds . ogether, the side ones are very strikingly distinct,and though they are variable in number there are always at leasteight normal ones in the centre. Mr. Stuart Baker was the first to recognize this bird as anIndian species; he shot one himself at Dibrugarh in 1903, andhad a skin sent him from the Shan States in December, the birds should have been killed in these districts isnatural enough, for the natural haunts of the species are EasternSiberia and Mongolia, Japan, and China, whence in winter itgoes to the Philippines, Borneo, and the Moluccas. One would,therefore, expect it would be more likely to turn up in Burmaand Tenasserim, and it seems extremely likely that it has beenoverlooked, for though it is bigger than most pintails, there isnothing about it to catch the eye. In case it breeds anywhereon our eastern border hills, it may be mentioned that the eggsare said to be peculiarly shaped like a woodcocks, and palecream or buff in ground colour with grey and brown o Hn EASTERN SOLITARY SNIPE 83 Eastern Solitary Snipe. Gallinago solitaria. There has been a good deal of confusioa in the pastbetween this bird and the wood-snipe, which is curious, because,although both snipe, and both big ones, they seem to lay them-selves out, as it were, to be as different as possible from eachother. The wood-snipe is as near a woodcock as it can bewithout actually being one ; the solitary snipe is an intensifiedsnipe in every way. It is the lightest in colour of all oursnipes, as the wood-snipe is the darkest; it is a typical snipein its flight, though naturally not so active as the ordinarybirds, since it is a foot or more long, and weighs from five toeight ounces, as much as many woodcock we get here. Itsshape is not in the least woodcocky, and its call is an aggra-vated snipe-call, a harsh screeching imitation of the note ofthe common snipe, says Hume, who notes that this bird goesoff calling, while the wood-snipe is usually silent.
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