COMMON SNIPE. 318 
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 spring, 
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. R. 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 Ist of April,t 
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 “chévre volant;” and Mr. 
Alfred Newton tells me that in Lapland it is known by a name 
which signifies “ ram of the sky.” 
+ In the “Field” of 1867 (p. 275), Mr. H. M. Upcher, of 
Sheringham, states that a freshly killed snipe dissected by him, 
on the 30th 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. 
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