Habits and Habitat of Snipe. 1 7 5 



grass, perhaps a mile away from the nearest 

 Gallinago. A gregarious bird would never 

 bring itself to dwell in loneliness like this, 

 unless indeed it were wounded, for then 

 company-loving fowl of all sorts are wont to 

 thrust the sufferer out from their midst, to 

 exist miserably alone until it either perishes 

 or recovers sufficiently to come up to the 

 standard of activity required by its fellows. 



Another sure proof to my mind of the 

 natural solitude of the snipe is the complete 

 absence of unanimity observable when a num- 

 ber of birds are on the wing together. There 

 is no formation, no discipline, so to speak ; 

 they are a mere mob fleeing together from a 

 common danger. This is not surprising if 

 w^e consider what I believe to be the purely 

 fortuitous nature of these gatherings, which 

 when in the air are called wisps. In my 

 opinion there is no such thing as a wisp on 

 the ground {?in Irishism that may be forgiven 

 in connection with such a staunch litde 

 Hibernian as the snipe) — that is, using the 

 word wisp in the sense of a voluntary collec- 



