50 CHARACTERISTICS OF COMMON BIRDS. 



particular, is a crawling in the long herbage at the margin of the water, 

 although I should imagine from their shape and the position of the feet, 

 they are capable of standing erect, after the manner of the Penguins. 



On the occasions above referred to, I perceived that the young of the 

 Moor-Hen, (Gallinula chloropus,) might be easily confounded with the 

 Dabchicks, but if seen near, of course the length of the leg at once 

 distinguished them. In these situations it is not uncommon for the Teal, 

 (Anas crecca,) to find a retreat with its tiny brood, for Gilbert White 

 well designates them as "minute yet well-fledged wild-fowls." It would 

 seem that the smaller ducks either get the feathers sooner, or arrive at 

 that stage of existence when they become fully plumed, long before they 

 attain anything like full growth, and this is probably a provision for their 

 preservation, in the same way that all wild animals are more precocious 

 than tame ones. Young ducks, however, are pretty well protected during 

 their non-age, by the situations in which they are bred, and I have found 

 it extremely difficult to see them, although I knew that I ought to do so, 

 from their extreme similarity to the decayed water-plants amongst which 

 they were. This difficulty of distinguishing wild animals from the surrounding 

 herbage, is wonderfully exemplified in the Snipe, (Scolopax;) and I remember 

 when a boy, sharp-eyed as I was, being continually unable to see them 

 sitting just before a staunch old pointer, by whose movements I always 

 knew that her game was not far off. I did indeed on one occasion catch 

 a Snipe, (Scolopax gallinago,) before her nose; and a friend of mine 

 knocked down and bagged a Jack Snipe, (Scolopax gallinala,) with a 

 small horse-whip, his dog pointing it by the road-side as he was out 

 riding. 



The Woodcock also is remarkable in this particular, and is I suppose 

 the most difficult creature to see amongst the dead fern-brakes which he 

 almost always chooses to sit in. These birds are difficult to shoot, because 

 they are very quick and uncertain in their flight, and I have heard a 

 friend of mine often relate a splendid double shot made by his uncle, 

 who is a dead shot, at two Woodcocks which they flushed in a thick 

 wood; one went almost straight upwards through the thick branches, but 

 although lost to sight, the fatal charge followed so unerringly through 

 stick and leaf in the direction he was going, that down he came amidst 

 a shower of twigs and leaves. The other meanwhile cut in and out 

 amongst the stems of the trees, but, alas! these were equally insufficient 

 to shield him, and the opportunity seized of a glimpse between two stems, 

 brought him also to earth at a long shot. 



I took some pains at one time to obtain good evidence on the subject 

 of the Great Snipe, (Scolopax major,) and compared notes with many 

 professed Snipe-shots who had spent their lives in the bogs, but could 



