574 



COMMON SNIPE. 



as far as the Moluccas. A closely-allied species with i6 tail-feathers 

 inhabits North America, but our bird has wandered to the Bermudas. 



During the breeding-season both sexes of the Snipe produce, 

 while on the wing and especially towards evening, a drumming or 

 ' bleating ' sounds which appears to be chiefly due to the action 

 of the wings, slightly assisted by the expanded tail-feathers. In 

 April, though exceptionally in March, a slight nest in a tuft of grass, 

 heather or bunch of rushes, or on the open moor, is prepared; the eggs 

 — usually 4 in number and very large for the size of the bird — are 

 yellowish- or greenish-white, blotched somewhat obliquely with several 

 shades of brown : measurements i "6 by i 'i in. The alarm-note — scape, 

 scape, and chip, chip — is as well known as is the zig-zag flight of the 

 bird on being flushed ; when feeding, however, the Snipe may be 

 sometimes approached unawares, and will then try to escape notice 

 by squatting. Occasionally it perches on trees (S:c., though the fact 

 has been dogmatically denied by persons of limited experience. 

 As its food consists of worms, insects and small molluscs, the Snipe 

 often becomes very thin during a continuance of frost ; its average 

 weight is 4 ozs. 



The tail-feathers are normally 14 in number; length of the bird 

 1075 (bill 2 "5), wing 5 in. A detailed description is rendered 

 unnecessary by the wood-cut ; and space will be more profitably 

 devoted to a vignette of the so-called Sabine's Snipe, which is now 

 generally admitted to be merely a dark form, seldom found outside 

 the British Islands, wherein more than 60 examples have been 

 obtained. The numerous variations in the plumage of the Snipe 

 have led to the creation of several bad species. 





