GREAT SNIPE — COMMON SNIPE. 153 



September, 1878 {Zoologist, 1879, p. 129). River-side gunners 

 on the upper Isis speak of shootiug- ' double Snipe/ a name 

 given by sportsmen to this species, but on enquiry ]\Ir. W. H. 

 Warner has always found that they mean the Common Snipe. 

 The latter is properly termed the 'full/ and the Jack the 

 'half Snipe. The SoHtary Snipe visits England early in 

 autumn, and should be looked for in drier situations than 

 those affected by its congeners. 



THE COMMON SNIPE. 



GaUhiago cceledis. 

 The Common Snipe is usually regarded as a winter visitor, 

 but it is always more numerous at the periods of migration, 

 and most so in autiunn. There is no record of the Snipe 

 having bred with us, although doubtless it did so on Otmoor 

 in former years. Mr. Warner indeed was informed that it had 

 been known to breed at Newbridge, but was unable to obtain 

 satisfactory confirmation of the report (il/*S'. notes). After wet 

 summers Snipes sometimes arrive here in large numbers in 

 August. The Messrs. Matthews in that month in 1838 

 witnessed ' the passage of a flock which must have contained 

 several thousands of these birds; they were at the time 

 proceeding in a southerly direction, at a tolerably slow pace, 

 and occvipied a considerable time in passing.^ [Zoologist, 

 p. 2537.) The late Rev. T. W. Falcon wrote me w^ord of a 

 great visitation of Snipes at Charlton-on-Otmoor ; he says, 

 ' Some years ago, after a slight flood in August, we were 

 visited by thousands of Snipe, which covered my meadows as 

 thick as ever you see Starlings. I used to watch them in the 

 evening probing the soft mud, and if I clapped my hands the 

 air was instantly filled with a long-billed crowd, which circled 

 once or twice over my head and then settled again. They 

 were mostly young birds and very tame. What direction 

 they came from I know not ; they remained here about ten 

 days-" {in lit.). After the wet summer of 1879, when the 



