276 CHARADRIID A 
COMMON SNIPE. Gallinago cvlestis (Frenzel). 
Coloured Figures—Gould, ‘Birds of Great Britain,’ vol. iv, 
pl. 79; Dresser, ‘Birds of Europe,’ vol. vii, pls. 542, 
543; Lilford, ‘Coloured Figures,’ vol. v, pls. 26, 27; 
Booth, ‘ Rough Notes,’ vol. ii, pl. 25. 
This familiar game-bird is widely distributed over our 
country throughout the year, becoming quite plentiful in 
autumn and winter, as the migrants arrive from more 
northern latitudes. Most of the birds which breed in 
Britain journey south in August: in hard weather a 
westerly move often takes place from Great Britain to 
Ireland. In September migrants having just arrived are 
often comparatively tame, and may be seen resting on the 
open marshes or ooze-slobs.' Snipe have been repeatedly 
put up from small, isolated clumps of rushes along the 
sea-beach of Dublin Bay; many of the birds obtained in 
that locality were very dark in colour and in poor condition. 
Restless in its habits, and largely influenced in its 
movements by the state of the weather, it is not surprising 
to find this active bird in varied localities. 
It is often met with amid furze and heather, on dry 
hills some hundreds of feet above the sea-level; Mr. Harvie- 
Brown has found it on the summits of the hills of the 
Outer Hebrides, while Thompson mentions it as feeding on 
Zostera-covered banks at the sea-level. 
The Snipe, unlike the Woodcock, avoids woods and 
thickets, being content with the cover of rushes and grass, 
but, like the Woodcock, it prefers to rest or lurk about in 
such cover by day, ‘flighting’ by night to its feeding- 
srounds. Hence its movements are difficult to follow 
except when it is flushed from the swamp and forced to 
take wing. I have crept on these birds unawares, and, 
concealing myself, have watched how they wend their way 
slowly through rushes or tall grass, until a bare patch of 
mud is reached, which they probe energetically in search 
of food; or, if suspicious of danger, crouch low to avoid 
observation. This species has been known to perch in 
trees ; indeed, many allied wading-birds, such, for instance, 
‘Mr. W. J. Williams informs me that on September 29th, 1900, he 
noted a ‘wisp’ of some fifteen birds standing on a bare patch of sand 
at Portmarnock Point on the Dublin coast: other small ‘ waders’ 
accompanied them. 
