314 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
and 16th of that 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 19th of June; 
and by the 16th and 21st of July, Mr. Dowell has 
found them fully grown.* At this time, as Yarrell 
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 
eges,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. 
+ 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 not 
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. 
