4 BIRDS OF CHESHIRE. 
migrants leave us; and except in the Hill Country 
the bird is very local during the breeding season. 
Brockholes knew of no authentic instance of the Snipe 
nesting in Wurral,! although it breeds at Aldford near 
Chester, and in the marshes in the neighbourhood of 
Frodsham, Helsby, and Thornton-le-Moors.? The bird 
breeds at Oakmere,? and we have seen eggs which were 
taken in other parts of Delamere Forest. Many Snipe 
nested at Carrington before the reclamation of the Moss, 
and a few pairs still breed annually in marshy fields at 
Mobberley, Handforth, and Siddington. Within half a 
mile of Knutsford Station, several broods are reared 
every year on a piece of boggy ground, now enclosed 
by Mr. R. H. Watt, who affords every protection to the 
Snipe and other species which frequent the place. In 
North and Mid Cheshire we have often flushed Snipe 
in July and August, and Brockholes and Dr. Dobie 
record the occurrence of the bird at that season in 
Wirral, and near Chester; but we do not think that 
this is proof that these individuals had been reared in 
the immediate neighbourhood. 
The great stronghold of the Snipe in Cheshire in the 
spring is the high ground in the east and north-east. 
The bird breeds in considerable numbers throughout 
Longdendale, on the moors in the neighbourhood of 
Swineshaw Brook, and in the country from Lyme 
southward to Bosley and east to the Derbyshire border. 
The nests are found as frequently in marshy spots in 
the pastures as amongst the heather on the moors; and 
the drumming of the birds, together with their curious 
cry—chipper, chipper, chipper—as they fly to and fro 
high overhead, cannot fail to attract the attention of 
any one crossing the hills. 
1 Brockholes, op. cit. p. 12. 2 Dobie, op. cit. p. 336. 
