Snipe, 35 



less again in April, the last stragglers leaving 

 in May. There is, however, a large tem- 

 porary accession to the strength of British 

 snipe in the shape of the flocks which, travel- 

 ling from other countries, coast and alight 

 upon our shores both in the spring and 

 autumn migrations. Thus in March, and 

 again in October and November, there are 

 numbers of birds about which have spent 

 neither the winter nor the summer respect- 

 ively with us, which are using Great Britain 

 merely as a half-way house to northern or 

 southern climes. Whether the birds which 

 have been actually bred in this country 

 migrate out of it when full grown — i.e.^ about 

 the time of the first autumn arrivals from 

 abroad — is a disputed point. It seems almost 

 certain that they do so, however, for, other 

 evidence apart, were it otherwise, one of the 

 strongest characteristic instincts of their tribe, 

 that of wintering south of their breeding- 

 place, would be subverted, a very unlikely 

 state of things. Throughout the year, then, 

 there is a kind of "general post" in progress 



c 



