2 SCOLOPACID.E. 



which month it has also been obtained in Damara-land on the west side. In Asia 

 it has been found across Siberia as far as the Yenesei, and southward to the Tian- 

 shan range, Turkestan, Persia, &c., but has not yet been recorded from India or 

 China." 



Messrs. F. and P. Godman found the Great Snipe breeding at Bodo, Norway, 

 in 1857. They write * : — " On walking across the open part of the marsh, on the 

 26th of May, we flushed the first Great Snipe. This bird had evidently only just 

 arrived, and did not fly more than a few yards before it settled again. "Whenever 

 else we observed this species, it was amongst the brushwood on the borders of the 

 marsh. A few days after, as we were returning from a long ramble in the 

 mountains, on pushing our way over some swampy ground covered with birch- 

 wood and dwarf-willow on the edge of the marsh, our attention was attracted by 

 an unknown note of a bird on the ground, somewhat resembling the smack of the 

 tongue repeated several times in succession. At first we thought it must be some 

 animal ; but, on remaining still for a few seconds, we saw several Great Snipes 

 walking about and feeding within a few yards of us. We watched them for some 

 time, but they did not appear to take the smallest notice of us. 



" About the 10th of June we began to search for their nests ; and though we 

 could always find several birds, we did not succeed in finding any nests before 

 June 24th, nearly a month after the birds arrived. About this time we found 

 several places evidently scraped out by a bird as if for a nest, and as they were in 

 a part of the marsh in which we observed no other bird except the Great Snipe 

 which was likely to do this, although we Avere there almost daily for six weeks, 

 and as they were invariably in exactly similar places to those in which we subse- 

 quently discovered the nests of the Great Snipe, we can attribute them to no other 

 bird. Although we carefully looked at these scrapings several times subseq.uently, 

 we never found any eggs in them ; but on one occasion Ave took a nest with four 

 eggs about 6 yards from one of these places. 



" The fij'st nest we found contained four eggs, and was placed on the edge of 

 a small hillock, quite open, though there were dwarf birch-trees growing all round, 

 and one on the very hillock on which the nest Avas situated. It consisted of 

 nothing more than a hole scraped in the moss, in Avhich the eggs AA'ere deposited ; 

 there Avcre neither grass nor leaves in it. After a minute examination of it, and 

 carefully marking the place, Ave Avent aAvay to fetch our gims, the rain descending 

 in such torrents that Ave Avere not carrying them that day. On oiu' return in 

 half an hour, the bird was again on the nest. We put it up and shot it. It 



* "On the Birds observed at Bodii during the Spring and Summer of 1857," 'Ibis,' 1861, 

 pp. 87-89. 



