226 MIGRATION. 



summer, they left that part of the country in the middle 

 of August, or say a whole month earlier.* 



The migi'ations of the Solitary Snipe are said to take 

 place simultaneously — that is, at the same time as the birds 

 bred in the southern parts of the country depart for foreign 

 lands, those that have passed the summer months in the 

 interior and far North, leave their breeding-grounds for the 

 coast. These, as with the Woodcock, are believed to travel 

 by slow journeys, resting frequently by the way. At their 

 several halting-places there is, therefore, a constant change 

 of visitors ; for as the one batch moves farther south 

 another succeeds it, and thus the moA'ement goes on as 

 long as any remain in the country. 



As with other defenceless birds, the migrations of the 

 Solitary Snipe always take place in the night-time ; not, 

 however, in greater or lesser flights, as with several other 

 birds of passage, but singly, or in couples, or it may be in 

 families. On leaving the Scandinavian shores, they steer 

 a much more easterly course than their congeners the 

 "Woodcocks, and the Common and the Jack Snipe (of 

 whom so many regularly winter with us in England), as 

 is evident from the fact that it is only on rare occasions 

 that they visit our country, and then, probably, owing 

 solely to having been driven there by northerly gales in 

 the autumn, or easterly in the spring. 



Although the Solitary Snipe is the first of the Scolopa- 



* Sir Humphry Davy would appear to entertain the like view of the 

 subject ; for when speaking of the Solitary Snipe he says : " Tlieir late 

 passage this year (1828) would seem to have been an indication of a wet 

 summer in the north of Europe ; but to form an opinion upon facts of this 

 kind requires much kiiowledge and caution. The perfection of the larvpe 

 of the Tibulfe on which this Snipe feeds, depends upon a number of circum- 

 stances : the tempeiature of the last year ; tlie period when the eggs were 

 laid : the heat of the water when they were deposited, and the quantity of 

 rain aftorwnrds." 



