COMMON SNIPE. 603 



lands, and, although drainage and reclamation of waste 

 spaces have conduced to its decrease as a nesting species, 

 it still occurs in all suitable localities removed from the 

 vicinity of manufacturing centres. 



In autumn large numbers of immigrants arrive on our 

 shores ; the first comers about the third week in September, 

 and the main flights in October and November with the Wood- 

 cock, when they are not infrequently immolated against the 

 lanterns of our coast beacons. I have seen Snipe crossing 

 from seaward so early as 21st September, and in October 1890 

 I shot one of two, which were flying over the Redcar " scars," 

 coming direct from the sea. 



On first arrival many remain in the coast marshes, others 

 are flushed by Partridge shooters in the stubbles and root 

 crops, but the majority gradually disperse over the country, 

 when they are much more generally distributed than in 

 the nesting season. Their movements vary greatly, and 

 are regulated by the condition of the weather ; should intense 

 frost and snow occur they betake themselves to open streams 

 and running ditches, in which situations in Cleveland they 

 were very plentiful in mid-December 1899 ; and in severe 

 winters they desert even the streams, and resort to the tidal 

 portion of the Tees estuary, leaving the district altogether 

 if unpropitious weather continues for long, while only a few 

 return with milder conditions. In 1879 large numbers arrived 

 in Holderness from the middle to the end of November, pre- 

 ceding an outbreak of frost and snow in December, and all 

 left again before the middle of that month. 



In some seasons on the Tees marshes they are very numerous,, 

 and I have flushed a large " wisp," which might almost have 

 been called a flock, of fully a hundred, evidently newly arrived. 

 On a fine warm day in the autumn of 1890, a large assemblage 

 of Snipe was seen sunning themselves on a small grassy spot 

 in a marsh near the Teesmouth, where they were observed by 

 a gunner, who fired into the " brown," and told me afterwards 

 he picked up seventeen — fourteen Common and three Jacks. 

 The Common Snipe was in great abundance near Beverley 

 in the same year. 



