1 88 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



136. Snipe, Gallinago media, Leach; " Kennes." 



Very few Snipes were seen by us between Cairo and 

 Damietta. Between the 13th January and the 20th we 

 only shot 4^ couple. It was not until we came to El-Badalki 

 on January 20th that we found them in great numbers, on 

 the east bank, about four miles south of Damietta. I sup- 

 pose it is the place alluded to by Captain Shelley at p. 25 

 (o. c). We shot over twenty couple that afternoon. After- 

 wards we were shown several marshes on the edge of Lake 

 Menzaleh, and within easy donkey ride of Damietta, where 

 very good bags might be easily made. They were inferior 

 eating to English Snipes. 



We did not expect to find any in our voyage up the Nile. 

 Indeed there are no marshes suitable for them, but ten or 

 twelve were shot, chiefly single specimens, on the sandbanks 

 and backwaters. I am rather surprised that we met with 

 so many. The last was on the 21st of April, and I think 

 I remember flashing another or two about the ist of May. 

 I suppose however that there must be some place near 

 Cairo where they are plentiful, as I heard of one gun getting 

 forty couple on the nth of January in that neighbourhood. 



The majority had the outer tail feathers slightly elongated, 

 though not quite so much as one I got at Moscow on the 

 20th of September, \%6^ (vide ante). This variety has re- 

 ceived the name of S. breliuii. 



137. Jack Snipe, Gallinago gallinnla (Linn.) 



Very plentiful in the marshes at Damietta; its numbers 

 in proportion to the Common Snipe being slightly more 

 than would be the case in England ; for instance, a third of 

 the bag would probably be Jacks. We did not see many 

 anywhere else, and none above Cairo that I remember. 



