COMMON SNIPE. 313 



appearance. These homebred birds, however, must not 

 be left too late into the autumn should a day or two's 

 shooting be contemplated, as with the first frost they 

 quit our marshes for the south, to be succeeded only 

 by the usual migratory flights. 



As early sometimes as the middle of March, but 

 generally a week or so later, the strange " drumming" 

 or bleating noise* of this species when on the wing, 

 indicates the commencement of the nuptial season, 

 and from that time all persecution should cease, 

 even though, with regard to the time of incubation, 

 the snipe is very irregular. A cold backward spi*ing, 

 or the first eggs having been taken, or destroyed by 

 a sudden flood, will make all the difference, but those 

 which are fortunate with their first brood, have no 

 doubt a second hatch, as the "drumming" may be 

 heard at times as late as the end of July, and 

 I have seen young birds, still in the down, in the 

 middle of August. Mr. W. E. Fisher recorded in the 

 "Zoologist" for 1843 (p. 248), the fact of two snipe's 

 eggs having been brought to Yarmouth for sale, from a 

 nest which contained four, as early as the 1st of April, f 

 and I have received them myself, quite fresh, on the 8th 



* Hence the name of "heather bleater" by which the snipe is 

 commonly known in Scotland, and according to Thompson, Gaelic 

 and Irish words are applied to it signifying " air-goat," or " kid 

 of the air." In France it is termed " chevre volant;" and Mr. 

 Alfred Newton tells me that in Lapland it is known by a name 

 which signifies " ram of the sky." 



t In the « Field " of 1867 (p. 275), Mr. H. M. Upcher, of 

 Sheringham, states that a freshly killed snipe dissected by him, 

 on the 80th of March, contained a perfect egg richly coloured and 

 ready for exclusion. In the " Zoologist," also, for 1868 (p. 1256), 

 Mr. F. Bond mentions a very early nest of the common snipe in 

 Sussex. The hen bird was shot on the 4th of April and her 

 four eggs taken. The breast feathers even then indicated that she 

 had been sitting some days. 

 2 s 



