ADDITIONAL NOTES. 333 



and to raise their young, and of which the old birds have 

 already had the experience of former years. Scarcely 

 any woodcocks winter in any part of Germany. In 

 France there are a few found, particularly in the 

 southern provinces, and in Normandy and Brittany. 

 The woods of England, especially of the west and 

 south, contain always a certain quantity of woodcocks, 

 but there are far more in the moist soil and warmer 

 climate of Ireland ; but in the woods of southern Italy 

 and Greece, near marshes, they are far more abundant ; 

 and they extend in quantities over the Greek Islands, 

 Asia Minor, and Northern Africa. 



The snipe is one of the most generally distributed 

 birds belonging to Europe. It feeds upon almost every 

 kind of worm, or larvae, and, as I have said before, its 

 stomach sometimes contains seeds and rice ; it prefers a 

 country cold in the summer to breed in ; but wherever 

 there is much fluid water and great morasses, this bird 

 is almost certain to be found. Its nest is very inarti- 

 ficial, its eggs large, and the young ones soon become 

 of an enormous size, being often, before they can fly, 

 larger than their parents. Two young ones are usually 

 the number in a nest, but I have seen three. The old 

 birds are exceedingly attached to their offspring, and 

 if any one approach near the nest they make a loud 

 and drumming noise above the head, as if to divert the 

 attention of the intruder. A few snipes always breed 

 in the marshes of England and Scotland, but a far 

 greater number retire for this purpose to the Hebrides 

 and the Orkneys. In the heather surrounding a small 

 lake in the island of Hoy, in the Orkneys, I found, in 

 the month of August, in 1817, the nests of ten or 

 twelve couple of snipes. I was grouse-shooting, and 

 my dog continually pointed them, and, as there were 



