GEEAT SNIPE. ^ 



proved to be a female. The eggs were very slightly incubated. The next day 

 (June 25th) we found another nest within 200 yards of the former, containing 

 only two eggs, and as we thought the bird would be sure to lay more, we marked 

 the place and left it. It was situated on a small hillock, and much in the same 

 sort of place as the former. We found another nest on the 27th of the same 

 month. The bird fluttered ofl" and ran away, dragging its wings on the ground, 

 and making a sort of drumming noise. After taking four eggs from this nest, we 

 returned to look at that found on the 25th, which contained two eggs. We 

 walked directly to the spot, and what was our horror at seeing nothing in the 

 place but some apparently disturbed moss ! Our first impression was that the 

 eggs had been destroyed by the Magpies or Crows that were constantly hunting 

 for such food, or perhaps taken and eaten by one of the many boys Avho wandered 

 about the marsh tending cattle ; but on our beginning to express our fears, the 

 bird, doubtless frightened by our voices, flew up, leaving a hole in the moss 

 through Avhich we could see there Avere still only two eggs as before. Not 

 doubting, however, that the bird would yet lay more, we again left it, and returned 

 in a couple of days. On approaching the spot, we observed the nest was again 

 covered with moss. This time we remained for a minute before the bird flew ofl", 

 and on stooping down to examine it more closely, we could distinctly see the 

 bird's back through the moss. Not liking this close inspection, it flew up, and 

 we took the eggs, which proved to be only within a day or two of hatching. The 

 bird had evidently, after it was comfortably seated on its nest, torn up, with its 

 long beak, the moss within its reach, and drawn it over its back till it was com- 

 pletely covered in the way described ; there was not the least appearance of any 

 hole through which the bird could have crept into its nest. This circumstance of 

 the nest being covered is the more curious, as out of six we found, it was the only 

 one thus carefully concealed. There were probably as many as ten or fifteen 

 pairs of these birds in the marsh, which usually kept pretty close together, and 

 were generally to be found in one particular spot. Could this have been a 

 congregation of male birds, the mates of which were breeding in the vicinity ] 



" Mr Wolley obtained a nest with four eggs from this locality the same year, 

 but unfortunately the eggs were much broken. 



" We saw the bird occasionally on swamps in the mountains, but it would 

 have been a hopeless task to have searched for its nest there, though we have 

 little doubt it breeds in other localities in the neighbourhood. 



" The down of a young bird of ScoIojJax major which we prepared and 

 brought home is not nearly so dark as that of *S'. gallinago." 



Prof. Collett has given a full description of the peculiar habits of the Great 



