372 



SNIPES. 



nibbling in the soft mud. Its food consists of worms, insects, and slugs, which 

 abound in such places. In these retreats, the snipe, when undisturbed, walks 

 leisurely with his head erect, but when alarmed, it usually springs and takes 

 flight beyond the reach of the gun, turning nimbly in a -zigzag direction for 

 two or three hundred paces, and sometimes soaring out of sight. The snipe, 

 like the woodcock, shuns the extreme of heat and cold by keeping upon the 

 bleak moors in summer, and seeking the shelter of the valleys in winter. In 

 severe frosts and storms of snow, driven by the extremity of the weather, these 



i<I2S,'A-/s \ 



'■^mm^ 



Fig. 186.--T11E Common Snipe {Scoh/'ax gallinaso). 



birds seek unfrozen marshy places, springing rills, or any open streamlet of 

 water, and there they will sometimes sit till nearly trodden upon before they 

 will take flight. Although it is well known that numbers of snipes leave 

 Great Britain in the spring, and return in the autumn, yet it is equally well 

 ascertained that many constantly remain and breed in various parts of the 

 country, for their nests and young ones have been so often found as to leave 

 no doubt of the fact. The female makes her nest, which is very inartificially 

 composed, of withered grasses and a few feathers, in some retired spot, gene- 

 rally under the stump of an alder or willow. The eggs, which are large and 

 usually four in number, are pale yellmvish or greenish white, with rather 

 elongated rusty spots at the larger end. Sir Humphrey Davy describes the 

 parent birds as being extremely attached to their young, and says that if any 

 one approaches the nest, they make a loud and drumming noise above the 

 head of the intruder, as if to divert his attention. The young run off soon after 



