Common Snipe 85 



The eggs are four in number, pyriform, and arranged in the nest 

 with tiicir small ends pointing inwards. There is rather a wide 

 variation in colour in different clutches, and even in the individual 

 eggs forming a singli^ clutcii, though these usually resemble each 

 other closely. 



The eggs are very large for the si/.e of tlu' l)ird ; the average 

 weight of a Snipe at the time of the year may be taken at 4 ounces. 

 A single egg weighs ^ oz. or the least fraction over, the whole clutch 

 weighing, say, 2j— 2j oz.* 



The four eggs are laid as a rule in five or six days, and as they 

 represent fully half the body weight of the bird, the strain of 

 ovulation in the case of the Snipe must be very great. 



It is difficult for the l)ird to cover these four large eggs 

 satisfactoril}' during the period of incubation, and it is with a view 

 to their occupying as little space as possible, that they are all arranged 

 with their small ends pointing to the centre, a habit which prevails 

 with all the Limicoline birds. 



Incubation lasts 19 or 19I days, I think, on the average ; 

 certainly longer than most authors are inclined to allow. 



In an incubator, I found that two single eggs from two separate 

 nests (by single, I mean that no other egg had been laid in the nest 

 up to the time I took them) hatched out in exactly ig days 12 hours. 



In a third instance, I put three eggs (one clutch) into the 

 incubator on April i6th p.m., and these hatched on May 4th a.m., 

 giving 17.^ da\'s. But I am inclined to suppose in the latter case 

 that three might have been the full clutch and that they were partially 

 incubated naturally before I started them artificially. 



Four is, of course, the ordinary full clutch, but the Plover-like 

 birds often lay short, after the}' have been robbed, and. on occasion, 

 may possibly lay less than the full complement of four at the first 

 laying. 



Accepting the incubator time as ig.^- days, I should take it as 

 a fair inference that any variation in the time of natural incubation 

 would be in the direction of lengthening that period. For natural 

 incubation, however superior it may be in other wavs. can hardly 

 be so perfect and regular as regards temperature as the mechanical 

 substitute. 



Probabl}', the Snipe hatches its eggs sometime during the 20th 



The nestling Snipe is one of the prettiest objects imaginable 

 wlien ncnvly hatched — a i^all of brown tfuff of varying shades, from 

 red-brown to a brown so dark as to be almost black. The down 

 feathers are tipped with white, as if lightly sprinkled with snow. 



The bill is very short, as compared with that of an adult bird, 

 being less than two-thirds the length of the head, whereas the bill 



* See a short paper in the Ibis (Jan. 1909) ix. series, vol. iii., p. 137, " On the Decrease in 

 Weight of Bird's Eggs during Incubation." the upshot of which goes to show that there is a 

 loss of 14 per cent, to i j per cent, in weight between the fresh egg and that on the point of 

 hatching. 



