THE SNIPE 



Qallinago coelestis 



Top of head, back, and upper feathers of wings dark brown, 

 in parts nearly black with a bluish gloss, two buff streaks on 

 each side of shoulders; face and chest spotted with dusky 

 brown, whilst the flanks are barred with the same colour ; tail 

 bright chestnut, barred with black and tipped with white ; 

 legs greenish ; bill brown, at base flesh colour ; eyes dark 

 brown. Length, 11-5 inches. 



The Snipe in some parts of Upper Egypt are so 

 extraordinarily tame — and hardly behave as Snipe 

 do generally — that I have no doubt they are often 

 seen by many who never recognise them as Snipe 

 at all. At the Sacred Lake at Karnak I have seen 

 veritable processions of visitors, headed by a talk- 

 ing dragoman, walk along the path quite near one 

 which was standing at the water's edge, and if none 

 left the pathway it would remain stolid, but if any 

 boy, or workman, came down to bathe or drink, it 

 just flew across to the other side and at once settled 

 down again. And in the very early morning before 

 the workers arrive, I have stood right on the shore, 

 not screened or hidden in any way, and had Snipe 

 dibblinff about in the water not more than five or 



o 



122 



