Habits and Habitat of Sfiipe. 197 



from the dry bent-grass so often flourishing 

 just above high-water-mark. The late Mr 

 Thompson recorded a nightly visitation of 

 snipe to some excavations in progress right 

 In the centre of the town of Belfast. Still 

 more strange was a haunt reported by Sir 

 Ralph Payne-Gallwey, the as yet dry bed of 

 the Manchester Ship Canal, where he wit- 

 nessed snipe feeding, as he says, "within a 

 few yards of machinery and navvies." I 

 myself have seen both a Full Snipe and a 

 Jack at dinner together in the gutter of the 

 High Street of a country town, the Jack 

 refusing to quit long after his bigger but 

 more timorous relative had been frightened 

 away by my near approach. Even a flying 

 visit to London Is not unknown to the in- 

 corrigible little vagrant, though surely the 

 mighty city never harboured a more incon- 

 gruous addition to her census amongst all the 

 mixed horde of w^anderers who claim her 

 hospitality for a night. Snipe have often 

 been flushed in quiet parts of the suburbs, 

 the last occasion recorded being at Hurling- 



