344 SCOLOPACIDyE. 



where Captain Shelley says that in February he has killed 

 over forty couple in a day. It ascends the Nile to Nubia 

 and Abyssinia, and, by the elevated lake Ashangi, Mr. W. 

 T. Blanford found it as late as May. Von Heuglin observed 

 it in Arabia Petrpea and in the Somali country; and it occurs 

 in Socotra. On the western side of Africa, the winter range 

 of our Snipe extends to the Gambia, but in the southern 

 portion of that continent it is replaced by G. cequaiorialis. 



In summer our Snipe is found across Siberia up to, and 

 even beyond, the Arctic circle ; but on the Yenesei, in 67° N . 

 lat., Mr. Seebohm found a preponderance of the Pin-tailed 

 Snipe, G. stcnura, a species which maybe distinguished by 

 the very narrow stiff feathers on each side of the tail, which 

 is also shorter, and by the black bars to all the under wing- 

 coverts, some of which are white in our Snipe. Both these 

 species visit India in abundance during the cold season. 

 Our bird is found in winter in Asia Minor and Persia ; it 

 breeds in Turkestan, and on 12th June Dr. Scully obtained 

 its eggs on the lofty table- lands of Yarkand, whence it departs 

 in winter. On its migrations it evidently crosses the great 

 ranges of Central Asia ; it has been obtained in Japan, is 

 very abundant in China, and goes south as far as Ceylon, 

 the Philippine Islands, and Malaysia. 



Towards the latter half of March, or beginning of April, 

 according to climatic conditions, Snipe begin to produce that 

 humming or bleating noise which has obtained for the 

 species the name of 'Moor-lamb' in Lincolnshire, 'Heather- 

 bleater ' in lowland Scotland, the equivalents of ' air-goat ' 

 in the various branches of the Celtic language, ' Chevre 

 volant ' in France, and * Himmelsgeiss ' in Germany. 

 This sound is always uttered on the wing, the bird soaring 

 at an immense height, often out of sight, and descending 

 with great velocity and with a tremulous movement of the 

 pinions. These flights are more commonly performed to- 

 wards evening, and continue while the female is incubating. 

 The cause of this peculiar sound has been much disputed. 

 Mr. Selby supposed that it was produced by the wings, but 

 Mr. W. Moves, of the Stockholm Museum, in an elaborate 



