2lS ALLEN'S naturalist's LIBRARY. 



ally gregarious, they get up within a certain distance from each 

 other, and their note of " scape " may be heard from several in 

 the air at once. That they do associate together is certain, how- 

 ever, for I remember my friend, the late Mr. Frederick Bond, 

 telling me how, many years ago, in the days of muzzle-loaders and 

 percussion caps, he was wending his way home by moonlight 

 across the Cambridgeshire Fens, and looking out for an oppor- 

 tunity cf discharging one of his still loaded barrels. Crossing 

 over a little bridge which spanned a ditch, he saw, by the light of 

 the moon, a Snipe standing on the edge, and fired at it, only too 

 delighted to have found something at which to let off his gun. 

 On walking to the spot he picked up €leve?i Snipe. The late 

 Mr. Booth also relates how, when he was punt-gunning on a 

 river one winter in the north of Scotland during a severe frost, 

 he noticed that Snipe were collected in numbers along the banks, 

 where the mud was kept soft by the action of the tide. As a 

 novel proceeding, he fired one shot at them with the big gun, 

 but the poor birds were so tame that it could hardly be con- 

 sidered sport, and fowl being plentiful on ihe water at the time, 

 he left them alone in hopes of renewing their acquaintance on 

 some future day. He discovered, however, when the weather 

 changed, that he had lost his chance, as, after the breaking-up of 

 the frost, not a Snipe could be found within a mile of the spot. 

 The Snipe is always a bird of the swamps both in summer and 

 winter, and is a skulking bird. It feeds largely on worms, 

 slugs, and insects. Its flight is very swift, and when it rises from 

 its concealment it twists and turns in a zig-zag flight until it has 

 got well out of danger. It utters a harsh note when it rises. 



With regard to the drumming of the Snipe, various surmises 

 as to the way in which the noise is produced have been 

 hazarded, and Mr. Seebohm has given an excellent note on the 

 subject : — " In the breeding-season the note of the Snipe is 

 rapidly uttered, tyik-tyuk, each syllable accompanied by a 

 depression of the head. This note is common to both sexes ; 

 but perhaps the most interesting fact connected with the 

 history of the Snipe is the well-known drumming of the male 

 bird during the pairing-season. He may then be seen in broad 

 daylight high in air, wheeling round and round in enormous 

 circles, flying diagonally upwards with rapid beats of the wings, 

 then swooping down an imaginary inclined plane with half- 



