GREAT SNIPE. 599 



these birds were in pairs, and proved male and female re- 

 spectively. 



When shooting in Sweden, Mr. Lloyd says, " the Double, 

 or Solitary Snipe, I always found singly, or at most in pairs. 

 These birds are usually so fat in autumn as apparently to 

 be hardly able to fly ; indeed, when flushed, they usually 

 proceed but a short distance before they settle again ; their 

 flight is heavy and steady, and they present the easiest mark 

 possible. Four couple was the greatest number of these 

 birds that I ever killed in Sweden in any one day. They 

 were by no means plentiful in the vicinity of Gothenburg." 

 That Mr. Lloyd Avas not advantageously located for these 

 particular birds, may be inferred from the account of Mr. 

 GreifF, who says, " the Double Snipe is a bird of passage in 

 Sweden, and amongst those which arrive the latest. At the 

 end of the month of July, when the meadows are mowed, the 

 shooting of these birds with the pointer conmiences, and 

 continues till towards the end of September. In the whole 

 round of sporting, this affords one of the greatest pleasures. 

 These birds are easy to shoot ; and in some places fifty or 

 sixty may be killed in a day, particularly in autumn, when 

 they are so fat that they almost burst their skins. They 

 are most delicious eating." Mr. GreifF adds, " I was an old 

 sportsman of thirty years"* standing before it came to my 

 knowledge that Double Snipes had their lek, or playing- 

 ground. I heard their cry a whole spring, which was in a 

 marsh where I had a good orr-lek, but never observed them, 

 and therefore believed it to be some frogs or reptiles ; but 

 at last I. discovered they were Double Snipes, which ran like 

 rats among the hillocks. Their cry commences with a sound 

 resembling the smack of the tongue, and thereupon four or 

 five louder follow." Sir Humphrey Davy says, " an ex- 

 cellent sportsman, and good observer, informs me, that, in 

 the great royal decoy, or marsh-preserve, near Hanover, he 



