9^ Common Snipe 



passionate joy at finding themselves once again at their nesting 

 ground.* 



There is far more variation among Snipe than is the case with 

 most species. They vary in size, in colour and in rceight ; also in 

 the markings of the feathers, especially the barring of the a.xillaries, 

 and the spotting of the breast ; and, lastly, in the number of tail 

 feathers. 



In Snipe, the sexes are alike. The female, on the average, is 

 a slightly larger bird than the male, but it is impossible to tell one 

 from the other with any certainty. If six couple of Snipe were 

 turned out of a game bag at the end of a day's shooting, I doubt 

 if anyone would guess the sex correctly in every case, even with the 

 help of a weighing-machine. Trusting to evidence of weight alone, 

 perhaps nine out of twelve answers would be free from error. 



There is but little seasonal variation in the plumage ; the Snipe 

 in summer differs in no marked way from the Snipe in winter. The 

 clean-moulted autumn birds are brighter in colour, with the 

 longitudinal stripes more sharply defined ; the summer birds are 

 somewhat paler, as though the feathers had faded in the eight or 

 nine months since the moult. But when all is said and done, the 

 difference is very slight. 



In size and weight they vary enormously. Four to four-and-a- 

 quarter ounces may be taken as a fair average weight ; anything 

 over five ounces is unusual. 



Much heavier Snipe than this are occasionally obtained. 

 Lubbock records a specimen which " weighed very nearly eight 

 ounces." and there are many instances of specimens weighing six 

 to seven ounces being shot.f 



Gould, on the ground of size, weight, and somewhat more ruddy 

 colouring of these large birds, was doubtfully inclined to raise them 

 to specific rank under the title Scolopax russata, but they are 

 now universally admitted to be a mere variety of the Common 

 Snipe. 



As these large birds fully equal, and often exceed, the Great or 

 Solitary Snipe [Gallinago major) in weight, a good deal of confusion 



* Note added later — Snipe " drumming " and " calling " in early February, igi i : 



I was over in Ireland (Clare-Galway, Co. Galway) from February loth to February i8th, 

 my chief object being the pursuit of the Wild Geese (White-fronted) of the,se parts. To that end 

 I was " flighting " (6-7.30) on the \\'aterdale river almost every night, and some nights was out 

 again after dinner, between q p.m. and i a.m. Full moon was on February 13th, so that there 

 was a good moon during the whole of my stay. 



There were dozens of Snipe "drumming " all round there every night, and calling the 

 monotonous " jick-jack" note. They began first at dusk, and went on as long as I remained on 

 the marsh. They were " drumming " quite as freely at midnight as at o'clock in the evening, 

 and, I judge, continued to drum as long as the moon was up. 



I spoke to the local fowler I had with me on the subject. He didn't seem to think there 

 was anything remarkable in their " drumming," or that the date was very early. He said he 

 had heard a few in December and plenty in January, and added that he believed yon might 

 hear an occasional bird " drum " in any month in the year ! 



t R. C. Haldane wrote in Ann. of Scottish Nat. Hist., 1906, p. 53 : " It is well known to 

 residents in Shetland that Woodcock and Snipe obtained there are exceptionally heavy. . . . 

 I have the weights of ninety Snipe, wfiich average 5.78 oz. ... I have killed Snipe up to 7 oz.,, 

 and remember one day getting three of 7, 7 and 6 oz. I have been told of birds of 8 oz." 



