COMMON SNIPE. 309 
to the season. The same author also states from his 
own observations in former days, that “a very small 
number, comparatively speaking, are bred in the Norfolk 
Fens,” and such, no doubt was always the case, inas- 
much as the snipe, like the dunlin, curlew, and other 
marsh and shore-birds, seems to resort, as in Scotland, 
to elevated situations for breeding purposes ;* even 
though some may annually remain in the drier por- 
tions of their winter quarters. At present they are 
found breeding throughout both the “Fen” and the 
“Broad” districts, but their numbers depend much 
upon the weather, being most abundant, according 
to my own observations, after a cold spring, with 
a prevalence of north-easterly gales, at the period 
of their vernal migration. At such times they arrive 
here later than usual, and if unable for some days 
to continue their passage, the urgent necessities of 
parental duties oblige them to seek in our marshes 
a retreat for their expected offspring. This was par- 
ticularly the case in 1860, when a heavy fall of snow 
occurred as late as the 22nd of April, and then an 
unusually large number of snipes remained with us to 
breed. It not unfrequently happens, however, that 
just after their first eggs have been laid and the old 
birds have commenced sitting, a considerable rainfall, 
or an extraordinary high tide on the coast, so floods 
the marshes that both nests and eggs are destroyed, 
whilst the snipes, thus driven from their adopted home, 
leave us altogether, and the prospects of a good breeding 
season are entirely changed. Of course by far the largest 
number are bred on the broads and marshes bordering 
* In the Hebrides, Macgillivray states that their nests are 
found in various situations; often in the grassy pastures, but 
more frequently on the unfrequented moors, from the level of the 
lakes to the height of two thousand feet. 
