286 BIRDS, BEASTS, AND FISHES 



says, an augury of fine weather, even though it is showery 

 at the time, and they drop into the reed after their flight as 

 if all their bones were broken by the ordeal. 



At this early season of the year (say in April), you may 

 hear the snipe and red-legs drumming and calling all day, 

 and by night too, and often in company, for they both love 

 the moist marshes, where the beds of cotton-grass and soft 

 grass grow. Indeed, they often nest in company, they two 

 and the green plover. " One coys the other," as the fenmen 

 say. And I have found their eggs in the first week in April 

 close together. 



And their simple nests, just a cup-shaped depression in 

 a tuft of dead grass, the grass being drawn together in a 

 bunch over the top, is all the trouble either snipe or red-leg 

 takes over its cradle. Once, 'tis true, I found a nest carefully 

 lined with dead rush, but such is rarely the case. There they 

 lay their four large blotched eggs, astonishing in size, too, 

 compared with the bird's size, and most delectable for eating, 

 far surpassing a peewit's. But the birds are far more delicious 

 than the eggs, which should be left untouched for a fortnight, 

 when the pretty little snipes will be all alive in the simple 

 nest. Should you go into a marsh in early spring and 

 disturb the hen-bird, she will run off and rise, flying and 

 scaping; and if the eggs be glossy and light, she'll fly 

 round you scaping piteously. Throughout the period of 

 sitting, the male bird drums overhead, encouraging the 

 patient hen, and especially at dusk, when a soft shower 

 of rain has powdered the bent grass, the cock is most 

 active with his bleatings. Indeed, after a rain-storm they 

 are all alive, drumming and resting by turns, sedately and 

 grotesquely upon an old mill or bare tree-top. 



When the big old hen starts off the nest — for in the lay- 

 ing season she is the larger — to feed on some bright spot of 

 water, about half-an-inch deep, lying on some puddingy 

 marsh or eke upon a hard-bottomed flat — they hke both 

 provided she has not been previously robbed by some 



