216 ITS FLIGHT. 



inches, and weight from six to eight ounces, according to 

 age and the season of the vear. The female is somewhat 

 larger than the male. During spring and svimmer it is 

 comparatively lean ; hut in the autumn, as a general rule, 

 excessively fat ; so much so, indeed, that on falling to the 

 ground when shot, it at times bursts its skin ; and should 

 several of these birds be placed together in the pocket or 

 the game-bag, the probability is that when one reaches 

 home their feathers will be found quite saturated with oily 

 matter that has exuded from their bodies. 



The Solitary Snipe, independently of its superior size, 

 may readily be distinguished from the Common Snipe by 

 the most casual observer, by its shorter bill, its plumper 

 look, and its grey sj)otted breast, and, when on the 

 wing, by its outspread tail. The learned point out other 

 differences between the two ; amongst the rest, that 

 whereas tlie Solitary Snipe has sixteen feathers in its tail 

 (the outer ones of the adults being white), the Common 

 Snipe numbers only fourteen. 



The flight of the Solitary Snipe is somewhat slow and 

 heavy, and almost invariably in a straight line, never zig- 

 zag, as with the Common Snipe. When flushed, moreover, 

 it never flies to any considerable distance, seldom, indeed, 

 to more than two or three liundred yards. Just prior to 

 alighting, it not unfrequently hovers, as it were, for an 

 instant in the air, but more commonlv casts itself at once 

 to the ground as if dead, which, should it have been pre- 

 viously fired at, one might almost sujipose to be the case. 

 Occasionally, when rising from the ground, it makes a 

 peculiar noise with its wings, for which the Swedes have 

 not, as far as I am aware, a name, but the Germans call it 

 wuchtelndes Getose. 



We are told by more than one author that the Solitary 

 Snipe, on taking wing, never gives utterance to any cry 

 whatevei'. But this is not exactly the case ; for, though 



