O24 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
guish a bird in some spot where, even though pointed 
out to him, the novice may look in vain. TI never re- 
member to have detected a whole snipe in a marsh before 
its warning cry of “scape, scape” on rising attracted 
my notice, but I have caught sight of jack snipes sitting 
close to my feet more than once; and occasionally, when 
rowing by the side of a reed-bed on the broads, the 
bright eye of a snipe, squatting close to the water’s edge, 
has suddenly caught my own, though otherwise, even 
within a yard of me, it would have passed unnoticed. 
During frost and snow, however, when pinched with 
the severity of the weather, I have more than once come 
upon a snipe feeding by the side of an open stream, 
too busily engaged in “boring” to be aware of my 
approach. Mr. Harting also states in his “ Birds of 
Middlesex” that on one occasion having surprised a 
snipe under similar circumstances, it squatted down in 
the water as soon as it was aware of his presence, and 
was only flushed at last by a pebble thrown at it. The 
food of this species consists chiefly of earthworms, with 
insects and small mollusca.* 
With snipes as with woodcocks, it is difficult to 
arrive at any satisfactory estimate of the numbers that 
formerly visited this county as compared with the pre- 
sent time.t Then, as now, exceptional cases occurred 
* In confinement they will readily eat bread and milk, and on 
this food Mr. Edward Newton reared some, caught when half 
grown, till they were fully fledged. They thrived admirably until 
sent to the Zoological Gardens, when they immediately died. 
t+ Itis somewhat singular that in the L’Estrange “ Household 
Book” snipes are but once entered, “ Itm v snypys,”’ but no price 
given, and they were probably too common for Sir Thomas 
Browne to notice them in his “ List.” In the “ Northumberland 
Household Book” they are ordered to be bought “for my Lordes 
owne Mees at Pryncipall Feystes so they be good, and after ij 
a j4.”; a pretty good evidence of their abundance at that time. 
