884 



SNIPE 



The . Snipe is fortunately too well known to need description, 

 for a description of its variegated plumage, if attempted, would be 

 long. It may be noticed, however, as subject to no inconsiderable 

 variation, especially in the extent of dai'k markings on the belly, 

 flanks and axillaries, while examples are occasionally seen in which 

 no trace of white, and hardly any of buff or grey, is visible, — the 

 place of these tints being taken by several shades of chocolate- 

 brown. Such examples were long considered to form a distinct 

 species^ the B. sabinii, but its invalidity is now generally admitted. 

 No fewer than 55 specimens of this abnormality have been reckoned 

 by Mr. Barrett-Hamilton (Irish Nat. 1895, pp. 12-17), and every one 

 as yet examined seems to be a bird of the year. Other examples 

 in which buff or rust-colour predominates have also been deemed 

 distinct, and to these has been applied the epithet russata. Again, 

 a slight deviation from the ordinary formation of the tail, whose 

 rectrices normally number 14, and present a rounded termination, 

 has led to the belief in a species, S. brehmi, now wholly discredited. 

 But, setting aside two European species, to be presently noticed 

 more particularly, there are at least a score, more or less nearly 

 allied, belonging to various parts of the world, for no considerable 

 territory is without its representative. Thus North America pro- 

 duces G. delicata or wilsoni, so like the English Snipe as not to be 

 easily distinguished except by the possession of 16 rectrices, and 

 Australia has G. australis, a larger and somewhat differently 

 coloured bird with 18 rectrices. India, while affording a winter 

 resort to multitudes of the common species, which besides Europe 

 extends its breeding-range over the whole of northern Asia, has 

 the so-called Pin-tailed Snipe, G. stenura, in which the number of 

 rectrices is still greater, varying from 20 to 28, it is said, though 

 22 seems to be the usual number. This curious variability, deserv- 

 ing more attention than it has yet received, only occurs in the outer 

 feathers of the series, which are narrow in form and extremely stiff, 

 there being always 10 in the middle of ordinary breadth. 



Those who only know the Snipe as it shews itself in the shoot- 

 ing-season, when without warning it rises from the boggy ground 

 uttering a sharp note that sounds like sca])e, scape, and, after a 

 few rapid twists, darts away, if it be not brought down by the gun, 

 to disappear in the distance after a desultory flight, have no con- 

 ception of the bird's behaviour at breeding-time. Then, though 

 flushed quite as suddenly, it will fly round the intruder, at times 

 almost hovering over his head. But, if he have patience, he will 

 see it mount aloft and there execute a series of aerial evolutions of 

 an astounding kind. After wildly circling about, and reaching a 

 height at which it appears a mere speck, where it winnows a random 

 zigzag course, it abruptly shoots downwards and aslant, and then 

 as abruptly stops to regain its former elevation, and this process 



