COMMON SNIPE. 3 



partially extended and apparently motionless wings, diminishes his speed a little 

 as he approaches the ground obliquely, and alights abruptly. 



" In winter this species is dispersed over the whole of Britain, and in 

 summer many remain to breed even in the most southern parts, where there are 

 suitable places ; but in England the number is very inferior to what is met with 

 in Scotland ; on all the moist heaths of which, but especially on those of the 

 northern parts and the Hebrides, it is extremely abundant. The multitudes that 

 rear their young in the bogs of Lewis, Harris, and the Uists are truly astonishing. 

 There the nests are found in various situations ; often in the grassy pastures, but 

 more frequently on the unfrequented moors, from the level of the lakes to the 

 height of two thousand feet. A slight hollow, lined with bits of heath and grass 

 or sedge, and situated on a dry tuft, or among stunted heath or moss, receives the 

 eggs, which are usually four in number, although I have often found only three, 

 pyriform, placed with the small ends together, generally an inch and seven- 

 twelfths long, an inch and one-twelfth in breadth, of a greyish-yellow colour, 

 tinged with greenish-blue, and marked with irregular spots and patches of dark 

 brown and brownish-grey, more numerous toward the larger end. They vary 

 considerably in form, size, and colour." 



Respecting the nesting habits of this species in Shetland, the late Dr. Saxby 

 writes * : — " The Common Snipe begins laying early in May, but fresh eggs may 

 be found even as late as the middle of August. Every peat bog or moist meadow 

 may be regarded as a breeding ground, yet the nests are also found upon the 

 highest hills, not less upon the steep sloping sides than upon the tops ; but in no 

 case far from water, whether it be in the form of a loch or of a mere stream 

 trickling over the surface of the stones. The nest is by no means so flimsy and so 

 carelessly constructed as it is usually represented to be, a tolerably thick layer of 

 dry grass or of bits of fern being neatly arranged low down among the herbage, 

 forming a cavity shaped like a deep saucer, and measuring four inches across. It 

 is generally well concealed, so that when the bird sits close, as she usually does 

 until almost trodden upon, it is difficult to discover. I have only once found as 

 many as five eggs in a nest, and this was in a marsh where birds of the same 

 species were breeding abundantly ; the dissimilarity of one egg to the other four 

 rendering more than probable that the odd one was laid by a second female. 

 Any attempt to convey an accurate idea of the extraordinary variety of colouring 

 which prevails among the eggs of the Common Snipe would be futile. I have 

 seen them with the ground-colour of almost every shade and mixture of tint which 



* ' Birds of Shetland,' pp. 201, 202. 



