258 THE NESTS AND EGGS OF 



Breeding habits : The Red-breasted Snipe is a 

 somewhat late migrant, as is usual with strictly boreal 

 species, not reaching its breeding grounds until the end 

 of May or early in June, even later in the extreme 

 north. During winter and whilst on migration this bird 

 is gregarious, but in summer it lives in more or less 

 scattered pairs, the immature non-breeding birds how- 

 ever remaining in flocks, some distance south of the 

 nesting grounds. Of the pairing habits of this bird 

 nothing appears to be known. The nesting grounds of 

 the Red-breasted Snipe are situated on the tundras, or 

 as the Americans call them "barren grounds," in swamps 

 and near to lakes. Sometimes it breeds close to the 

 sea, at others considerable distances inland. The nest 

 is always made upon the ground, often in a tuft of 

 marsh grass, or amongst the short vegetation on the 

 shores of the moorland lakes. It is a mere hollow, 

 scantily lined with a few dead leaves orbits of withered 

 herbage. One of the birds which MacF'arlane flushed 

 from the nest rose for some height into the air, uttering 

 a long shrill note of alarm. The bird is a somewhat 

 close sitter, resembling the Common Snipe in this 

 respect. 



Range of egg colouration and measurement : 

 The eggs of the Red-breasted Snipe are four in number. 

 They are pyriform, and smooth in texture, and vary in 

 ground colour from pale greenish-brown to pale buffish- 

 brown, blotched and spotted with dark reddish-brown 

 and with underlying markings of pale grayish-brown. 

 Sometimes a few very dark streaks occur. These eggs 

 are very handsome ones, most of the big blotches being 

 confluent and congregated on or near the large end. As 

 in eggs of the Common Snipe, many of the blotches are 

 obliquely distributed. Average measurement, 17 inch in 

 length, by it 5 inch in breadth. Incubation is performed 



