VOL. vii] SNIPE AND REDSHANK IN SUSSEX. 331 



breeding of the Snipe in Sussex, and in his Systematic 

 Catalogue merely writes, " Tolerably abundant in the 

 winter, on moors and extensive tracts of low meadow- 

 land after the subsidence of great floods." 



The parish of Burwash, though yearly becoming 

 more and more a residential district, still retains some 

 sequestered and marshy spots where Snipe breed. It 

 is, however, in the meadows bordering the river Rother 

 and its tributary, the Dudwell, in their courses through 

 Burwash parish and the adjoining one of Etchingham, 

 which are frequently flooded during heavy rains, that 

 nesting Snipe are found in any numbers. These 

 meadows, locally called " brook-lands " or simply 

 " brooks," have in some cases a fair sprinkUng of 

 rushes and long grasses, and in these tussocks the Snipe 

 make their nests. 



In Dallington forest two or three pairs of Snipe breed, 

 and though I have never actually found the nest of a 

 Snipe in the forest, yet I have put up in marshy spots 

 old and young birds together, the latter just able to 

 fly at the end of May. 



Ten years ago it is questionable if a pair of Snipe 

 nested in the " brooks " of Burwash parish. About 

 that time Mr. Foster of Fontridge, the proprietor of 

 the land I am referring to, put a stop to the taking 

 of eggs by trespassers on his estate. After the second 

 season of protection a single pair of Snipe was found 

 breeding, and the number increased yearly until at 

 the present time it would not be an over-estimate 

 to conclude that not less than flve-and-twenty pairs 

 of Snipe are nesting this spring in the area of 

 " brook-lands " owned by Mr. Foster. On April 10th 

 I flushed at least twelve pairs, presumably nesting, 

 from a rushy marsh of not more than three acres. 



