Tlic Snipes. 



189 



fourteen, and has a shorter bill (two-and-a-half inches) than the Common Snipe, 

 though it is a larger and heavier bird than the latter species. It has occurred in 

 every part of the United Kingdom, and a few are shot every autumn. It nests in 

 Northern Europe, as well as in Holland and Northern Germany, as far as the valley 

 of the Yenesei in Siberia, and it winters in Africa. The males congregate in small 

 parties during the nesting-season, like the Ruffs, and are not shy, feeding mostly 

 in the evenings. The nest is a depression in a tuft of grass, with a little 

 moss or dead grass for lining, and the eggs, four in number and pear-shaped, are 

 stone-grey or clay-colour, with strong!}' marked black blotches, generally clustered 

 round the larger end of the egg. The length varies from an inch-and-three- 

 quarters to nearly two inches. 



The Common Snipe has a long bill (2-8 inches) and may be 

 recognised b^' the blackish bars on a rufescent ground on the 

 outer tail-feathers. It nests everywhere in Great Britain in 

 localities suited to its habits, and large numbers visit us in the 

 autumn and winter. It also breeds in northern and temperate 

 Europe, east to Central Asia, and winters in the Mediterranean and Red Seas, as 

 well as in India, Burma, and China. In autumn and winter the Snipe, without 

 being exactly gregarious, is found in considerable numbers in the same marsh, 

 and instances are on record of flocks having been noticed. During the breeding- 

 season the male has a curious habit of ' drumming ' in the air, which seems to 

 be a kind of love-song. The nest is a small depression lined with dead grass, 

 and is placed in a tuft of grass or clump ot sedge. The eggs are four in number, 

 and are brownish clay-colour or stone-grey with blotches and spots of black, 

 reddish-brown and purplish-grey ; the length is about an inch-and-a-half to an 



inch-and-three-quarters. 



Sabine's Snipe is only a 

 dark form of the Common 

 Snipe, and occu 



THE 



COMMON SNIPE. 



{GalUnago 



gallinago.) 



unfrequently. 



THE 



J.^CK SNIPE 



(Limitocryptes 



gnllinuln.) 



occurs not 



This is 

 a smaller 

 species than 

 the two fore- 



Thil Jack Snu'k. 



Sabine's Snipe. 



going ones, 

 and has a blackish wedge- 

 shaped tail, composed of 

 only twelve feathers. The 

 breast-bone is also remark- 

 able for having two notches 

 in Its posterior border. The 



