314 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



and 16th of tliat month, as well as young in their first 

 down by the 3rd of May. I have also a couple of nest- 

 lings with their wing feathers nearly complete, though 

 still with much down left amongst the new plumage, 

 which were taken at Surlingham on the 19 th of June ; 

 and by the 16th and 21st of July, Mr. Dowell has 

 found them fully grown.* At this time, as Ta,rrell 

 states, both " old and young quit their breeding marshes 

 in common with other fen birds, and betake themselves, 

 in family parties of six or seven in a flock, to marshes 

 which have been recently mown." 



The nest, with its usual complement of four large 

 eggs,t is placed either in a tuft of grass or rushes, 

 in some dry portion of the marsh — a mere hollow in 

 the ground, lined with coarse grasses, or on a raised 

 *' tussock " similarly concealed, and is not unfrequently 

 situated near a run of water. The young, when dis- 

 turbed in their downy state, instinctively seek shelter in 

 any slight irregularity of the ground. In this stage, as 

 is the case more or less with all the waders, young 

 snipes are the prettiest little objects imaginable, their 

 russet coats in various shades of brown being relieved 

 with greyish markings on the upper parts, the whole 

 assimilating in a marvellous manner to the herbage 

 which surrounds the nest. A female in my collection, 

 shot from the nest, exhibits the grey colouring on the 

 throat and sides of the face, which, according to Mr. 



* Yarrell states that in 1829 he "killed young snipes, strong 

 on the wing, as early as the last week in May ; but in other years 

 seldom before the 6th of June. 



f Low in his " Fauna Orcadensis," states that he has several 

 times found six eggs in the same nest, but this Mr. Hewitson 

 accounts for by two birds having laid in one nest, as is nob 

 unfrequently the case with other species. The snipe's egg is so 

 large for the size of the bird that it would be almost impossible 

 for it to cover more than four. 



