256 THE GREAT SNIPE 
sights of the evening, at all seasons of the year, to watch the Wood- 
cocks repairing from the woods to their accustomed feeding- 
ground. 
The nest is built of dry leaves, principally of fern, and placed 
among dead grass, in dry, warm situations, and contains four eggs, 
which, unlike those of the Snipes, are nearly equally rounded at 
each end. | 
There have been recorded numerous instances in which a 
Woodcock has been seen carrying its young through the air to 
water, holding the nestling between her thighs pressed close to her 
body. 
During its flight, the Woodcock invariably holds its beak pointed 
in a direction towards the ground. Young birds taken from the 
nest are easily reared; and afford much amusement by the skill 
they display in extracting worms from sods with which they are 
supplied. The Woodcock is found in all countries of the eastern 
hemisphere where trees grow; but it is only metas a straggler 
on the Atlantic coast of the United States. 
THE GREAT SNIPE 
GALLINAGO MAJOR 
Crown black, divided longitudinally by a yellowish white band; a streak of 
the same colour over each eye ; from the beak to the eye a streak of dark 
brown; upper plumage mottled with black and chestnut-brown, some 
of the feathers edged with straw-colour; greater wing-coverts tipped 
with white ; under parts whitish, spotted and barred with black; tail 
of sixteen feathers; bill brown, flesh-coloured at the base. Length 
eleven and a half inches. Eggs brownish olive, spotted with reddish 
brown. 
THE Great Snipe, Solitary Snipe or Double Snipe, is intermediate 
in size between the Woodcock and Common Snipe. Though not 
among the rarest of our visitants, it is far from common. It is, 
however, an annual visitor, and is seen most frequently in the 
eastern counties in the autumn. Its principal resorts are low damp 
meadows and grassy places near marshes, but it does not frequent 
swamps like its congeners. This difference in its haunts implies a 
different diet, and this bird, it is stated, feeds principally on the larve 
or grubs of Tipule (known by the common name of Father Daddy- 
Long-legs), which are in summer such voracious feeders on the roots 
of grass. It breeds in the northern countries of Europe, and in 
some parts of Sweden is so abundant that as many as fifty have 
