The Birds of Pembrokeshire. 93 
Tufton Arms belonging to the Trecwn estate, besides Woodcocks 
and other game. There are still a few remote and almost 
inaccessible spots adjoining the mountains where a good shot 
might secure from twenty to thirty couple a day, but on all 
easily reached grounds that in old days were alive with Snipe 
the bird is now but sparingly represented. However, sportsmen 
who are able to range over the wilder parts of the county still 
meet with a few Snipe to give an agreeable variety to the bag, 
and we used to get sixty couple or so in the course of the season 
around Stone Hall. The Snipe still nests all over the county in 
suitable places, and on a summer evening’s walk its peculiar 
drumming is one of the country sounds certain to meet the ear. 
There were every season a few nests at no great distance from 
our residence, and the young birds generally ‘‘ came down” (the 
local term for hatching off) successfully. Varieties of the 
Snipe are not very common. Captain John Tucker Edwardes, 
of Sealyham, firing into a wisp that rose one frosty morning by 
the side of one of the small ponds at Stone Hall, shot a pure 
white Snipe, and curiously enough did not observe it when it 
was flushed among the other Snipe. We examined this speci- 
men at Sealyham, and could not detect any darker feathers upon 
it, and it was evidently a perfect albino. Sir Hugh Owen shot 
a White Snipe at Llanstinan, in 1853, and another very light 
coloured one in 1855, that he presented to Mr. John Stokes, of 
Cuffern, by whom it was beautifully mounted. This bird we 
found to be nearly completely white, one or two of the scapular 
feathers only being a pale buff. One that fell to our own gun, 
was a very pretty mealy variety, being powdered over the head 
and shoulders with small specks of white. We have, once or 
twice shot Snipe in the so-called Scolopax russata plumage, 
but these we looked upon as large male birds in a transitional 
stage of moult. We have seen Snipe in this red plumage in 
the middle of April. The outline of the tail in the full, or 
Common Snipe depends entirely on the growth of the tail 
feathers ; if the outer feathers are not fully grown one has the 
bird with pointed tail ; or, if the outer feathers have attained 
