7° Common Snipe 



land extends to upwards of 1,000 acres, and in most places is only 

 separated from the sea by a narrow tract of low sand-hills covered 

 with marram grass and other marine vegetation. . Where the sand- 

 hills are an insufficient defence against the encroachments of the sea, 

 the marshes are protected by sea walls, varying from six to fourteen 

 feet in height, and constructed of earth removed from the adjoining 

 marsh. 



These walls, on occasions, fail in their object, and the sea breaks 

 through, flooding the meadows, and doing an incalculable amount of 

 damage. This was the case in November, 1807, when the sea burst 

 the wall three hours before the top of the flood tide, and covered the 

 ground with two or three feet of salt water, besides throwing hundreds 

 of tons of sand and shingle on to the land nearest the beach. Nor did 

 the damage end with the marshes alone, for the salt water, streaming 

 over the level flat, reached all the lower-lying woods or belts, and 

 stood for weeks in some of these to a depth of eighteen inches to 

 two feet. As a natural result, the trees were killed in large numbers, 

 especially the Scotch Fir, Ash, Poplar and Alder, which formed the 

 greater proportion of the big timber. 



Before proceeding to deal with the life-historv of the Snipe, 

 I should like to spend a few minutes in discussing the sounds which 

 emanate from the bird. 



These are three in number : 



1. The alarm note. 



2. The breeding note or love song. 



3. The musical " drumming." 



The first and second of these are undoubtedly vocal, (i) The 

 alarm note is generally rendered by English writers as " scape " 

 or " sceap," and is heard throughout the year. In summer, the note 

 is much less frequently used than during the autumn and winter 

 months. A Snipe flushed between April and June sometimes calls 

 and sometimes rises silently, but so far as my experience goes, over 

 50 per cent, make no sound. It is hardly necessary to add that a 

 bird never " sceaps " when leaving her eggs, whether she is frightened 

 or whether she is going off for her own pleasure. 



In the shooting season, on the other hand, the alarm note is 

 almost always heard : fully 95 per cent, of the birds " sceap " when 

 they are flushed, and it is quite a rare event, at that time of the year, 

 to put up a Common Snipe that goes off silently. 



2. The second note is also a vocal sound, and is confined entirely 

 to the breeding season — it is really a love song, I presume. It is 

 an exceedingl\- simple bi-svllabic sound, repeated over and over 

 again with an almost irritating monotony. The song is common, I 

 believe, to both sexes ; though, for obvious reasons, it is the male 

 that is most frequently heard. 



This note has been variously written by different authors. To 

 my ears, the best combination of letters is Pralle's (Hanover) 



