SCOLOPACIDiE. 471 



they searcli among tlie decayed leaves, and probe 

 tlie mud and ooze with, their lengthened bills. "VVlien 

 alarmed, they generally lie close to the ground, or 

 among the grass, or, suddenly starting on the mng, 

 escape by flight, which is short but elevated, rapid, 

 and irregular. The eggs, which are four in number, 

 are deposited on the ground. In the Snipe, and all 

 its immediate allies, the bill is thickened, soft, and 

 very tender at its extremity; so that this part, which 

 is richly supplied with nerves, serves as a delicate 

 organ of touch, and is used for searching in the soft 

 ground for the insects and worms that constitute the 

 food of these birds. It is migratory in its habits, 

 and generally breeds in high northern latitudes ; 

 nevertheless, it is truly indigenous in this country, 

 in all parts of which it is known to rear its young, 

 but more especially towards the north. 



The Common Snipe {Scolopax galUnago) is a smal] 

 bird, weighing about four ounces. The bill is nearly 

 three inches long, rather flat, and very smooth at the tip 

 in the living bird, but after death it soon becomes shrunk 

 and corrugated. The Snipe frequents marshy places and 

 wet meadows, and in frosty weather the edges of rushy 

 hills, where it is almost constantly probing and nibbling 

 in the soft mud. Its food consists of worms, insects, and 

 slugs, which abound in such places. In these retreats 

 the Snipe, when undisturbed, walks leisurely with his 

 head erect, but when alarmed it usually sprmgs and takes 

 flight beyond the reach of the gun, turning nimbly in a 

 zigzag direction for two or three hiindred paces, and 

 .sometimes soaring out of sight. The Snipe, like the 

 Woodcock, shuns the extremes of heat and cold, by keep- 

 ing upon the bleak moors in summer, and seeking the 

 shelter of the valleys in winter. In severe frosts and 

 storms of snow, driven by the extremity of the weather, 

 these birds seek unfrozen marshy places, springing rills, 

 < »r any open streamlet of water, and there they will some- 

 times sit till nearly trodden upon before they will take 

 flight. Although it is well kno^vn that numbers of 

 Snipes leave Great Britain in the spring, and return in 

 the autumn, yet it is equally well ascertained that many 

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