Snipe, 45 



flight. What a mysterious instinct is that 

 which hurries this atom of creation through 

 nights of travel, with the stormy northern 

 ocean tossing beneath, and almost everything 

 in the world more powerful than itself, save 

 only its determination to win its harbour. To 

 me the bellowing of a volcano is a less im- 

 pressive manifestation of the mastery of God 

 than the steadfastness of this puny bird. 



Jack-Snipe begin to arrive in this country 

 in September, the bulk, however, in the two 

 following months ; the first departures being 

 in February, trebling in March, and fading 

 again in April, the last stragglers leaving early 

 in May. 



If they migrate in bodies, as is most probable, 

 though I believe no eye has seen them on 

 their travels, they discard their sociability 

 immediately on alighting on dry ground, living 

 hermit-wise in silence and solitude each in his 

 little tuft. I have watched for hours, nay 

 days, patches of grass which I knew contained 

 Jack-Snipe, and never once have seen them 

 communicate one with another in any way 



