I02 Sabine's Snipe 



We met again more than once, but always with the same result. 

 If it was not the sun, it was something else ; when the crisis came, I 

 was always found wanting, in everything except excuses. For any 

 injury I was likeh^ to do that wretched .Snipe, I might as well have 

 been armed with a tin tube and some peas. 



I tell this story because it does illustrate two points about the 

 Sabine's Snipe : 



1. That the bird uses the alarm note, " sceap, sceap," in 



just the same way as the Common Snipe 



2. That the flight is quite typically Snipe-like. 



Some observers have said that the bird rises silently, and that 

 its flight is sloit' and heavv with dragging legs, so that it has been 

 mistaken for a Water Rail. 



There was nothing of the \\'ater Rail about mv bird ; nor do I 

 think anyone familiar with the Common Snipe, and seeing this varietv 

 on the wing for the first time, could possibly have the smallest doubt 

 as to its being a Snipe — and a " snipey " Snipe at that ! 



30/A May, IQ07. 



