COMMON SNIPE. 327 
coast, in the neighbourhood of Holkham, and being 
met by a severe frost on landing, afforded extraor- 
dinary sport for two or three days. On the first day 
Lord Leicester killed seventy or eighty couples, either 
flying overhead or out of the small drains; on the 
next day his lordship and a gamekeeper shot about 
seventy-eight couples, and having written for Mr. 
Dowell, that gentleman on the third day killed 
eighteen couples, but by that time the greater bulk of 
them had lert the neighbourhood. As a further 
instance, also, of a sudden frost driving the snipes 
in large numbers to the inland springs and drains, 
Mr. Thomas Edwards informs me that some thirty 
years ago, when residing at Hapton, he killed eighty- 
four couples of snipes in two days, which were scattered 
over the low lying meadows and common lands in that 
neighbourhood. 
The following returns from his game books of some 
of the most favourable seasons for snipe in that neigh- 
bourhood has been kindly supplied me by Mr. E. C. 
Newcome, of Feltwell:—In 1839 four hundred and 
twelve snipes were bagged. In 1841, six hundred and 
thirty-three—the best days in that year being September 
6th, when Mr. Newcome and his brother killed fifty- 
six snipes, and October 2nd and November 20th, when 
the Rev. W. C. Newcome shot twenty-nine and forty- 
nine snipes respectively. On the 14th of October, 1843, 
the late Lord George Bentinck bagged twenty couples. 
On the 28th of September, 1851, the snipes being 
plentiful but very wild, the Rev. W. C. Newcome shot 
forty-five snipes; and in 1860 the total bag amounted 
to three hundred and seven. 
From the Rev. J. Burroughes I learn that during 
his long experience, both as a naturalist and sportsman, 
of the habits of our marsh-birds, he has in two or three 
instances known of extraordinary migrations of snipes. 
