92 Common Snipe 



The breeding birds have completed their moult and left for the South 

 with their home-reared families long before, and the rush of foreign 

 migrants has not yet set in. 



As to Snipe, I have some facts of my own. It is not a very 

 difficult matter to get a fairly accurate idea of the number of Snipe 

 breeding on a limited acreage of ground, such as the marshes I have 

 been describing, more especially if wide areas of marsh are separated 

 from each other by intervening high land, as is the case with us. 



The " drumming " habit of the Snipe makes it easy to get a 

 very good idea of the number of nests. For, if a Snipe is breeding, 

 he will drum, and if he drums, he can be heard and seen, and the 

 number can be counted. 



It will be found, under equal conditions of weather, and the same 

 length of time being spent in watching, that a series of observations 

 will yield about the same result. 



Whether you find the nest or not is a matter of no great 

 consequence. 



On this group of marshes, seven or eight Snipe are generally 

 to be heard : on that ten — and so on. For the " drumming " Snipe, 

 though he covers a considerable area of ground in his flight, takes the 

 same course day after day over the same marshes, and, probably, 

 is never out of hearing of his mate on the nest. 



Checking one day's observation with another, you will be 

 surprised to find how close the different reckonings are ; and, I 

 think, owing to this peculiar habit, a correct estimate of the number 

 of Snipe breeding on any definite area of ground is far easier than is 

 the case with most other birds. 



On our marshland, in round numbers, I estimate the number of 

 nests at lOO. (Thorpe Fen, lo ; Leiston Abbey, 35-40 ; Sizewell, 

 15-20 ; Scoffs Hall, 30-35.) 



This would give us about 200 old birds and 400 young, making 

 a total of 600. Allow 30 per cent, for accidents and wastage of one 

 sort or another, we still have 420 or, say, 400 birds on the ground 

 in early summer. 



Walk these marshes carefully in the first half of July, and you 

 will see them in great quantities : in the second half of July they are 

 still there, but they are not so numerous ; by the end of the first 

 week in August, there are only comparatively few stragglers left ; 

 and for the rest of that month, and throughout September, it is as 

 much as you can do to secure half-a-dozen Snipe in a whole day's 

 tramp. 



Towards the end of October, in November and December, 

 Snipe appear again in some numbers, these being foreign migrants. 

 But in the second half of August, and in September, hardly one is 

 to be found. 



Where are the original 400 Snipe then, if the breeders are resident 

 birds ? 



Those who hold that the home-breeding Woodcock remain with 



