Snipe. 29 



and some artificial minnows, — there being 

 predatory fish in all the waters of the globe, — 

 so the shooter about to wander on a foreign 

 strand will always be safe with a light 

 twelve - bore gun and No. 8 shot. From 

 the land of the ostrich to that of the brent- 

 goose, from the sweltering tropic to the 

 bleak tundra, snipe will follow his footsteps 

 and he may follow the snipe. In Great 

 Britain it is both a resident and a migrant 

 visitor, though the numbers which remain 

 to breed are insignificant compared to those 

 which arrive at these shores on migration. 

 Quiet, lonely swamps, such as the birds re- 

 quire for their nursery, are few in number 

 in this land of precious acres ; but wherever 

 they are, there, concealed in dry tufts raised 

 above the level of the ooze, will most likely 

 be the little grass-lined cups which the bird 

 excavates for its nest, with the three or four 

 (very rarely five) disproportionately large 

 eggs (ij^ inch long by i inch i line broad), 

 greenish-white In colour, mottled, chiefly at the 

 thicker end, with different shades of brown. 



