222 THE BIRDS OF SUSSEX. 



GREAT SNIPE. 



Gallinago major. 



The Great Snipe is rare in Sussex, and does not visit England 

 till the autumn. At that season of the year it does not fre- 

 quent the bogs and marshes, but in the few instances in which 

 it has occurred, was mostly found among turnips or on dry 

 grass-land. When flushed, it rises in silence, as a rule, though 

 occasionally it utters a few harsh notes. 



The nest is found in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and 

 Russia, from the Baltic to Archangel, and in the breeding 

 season, like the Common Snipe, it mounts high in the air, 

 and makes a drumming noise on its descent. At that time, 

 it frequents the higher regions as well as the marshes of the 

 lowlands and coast. The food of the Great Snipe consists of 

 worms and slugs, also of insects, especially those of the gnat 

 tribe. (Vide Yarrell, vol. iii. pp. 338, 339.) Markwick, in 

 his Catalogue of Sussex Birds, says, " I have seen one of this 

 species which was killed near Horsham.^'' Mr. Dennis (p. n.) 

 states that one was obtained on Larnes Farm, Upper Beeding, 

 and another at Pond Lye, near Cuckfield, but gives no date. 

 Mr. Knox mentions that the Great Snipe " has been killed 

 on Pevensey Levels, and one was shot, in the month of 

 October, a few years ago by Mr. Trist, a wine merchant at 

 Brighton, on the Downs, near the Racecourse, a singular 

 locality for this bird.^^ 



In the ' Zoologist ' we find the two following notices from 

 Mr. Ellmau and Mr. Monk respectively: — " A specimen of 

 this rare bird was shot in the levels near this town, in 

 October 1849, Lewes." " A fine specimen of the Solitary 

 (or Great) Snipe, which was shot near Lewes, was brought me 

 on the 10th of October, 1867; it was a female, extremely 



