6*08 SCOLOrAClD.E. 



had been slightly wounded in the pinion, which was kept in 

 confinement for some time by Mr. Blyth, would eat nothing 

 but earth-worms. When the feeding ground of the Snipes 

 becomes limited by the effects of frost and snow, the birds 

 suffer greatly, and soon become very thin. Many go still 

 farther south. 



Muller includes our Snipe among the birds of Denmark. 

 M. Nilsson says it is common in Sweden, where, however, it 

 is a migratory bird, appearing in March, and departing soon 

 after the end of the breeding-season. So numerous are these 

 birds in the marshes in the vicinity of Gothenburg, that Mr. 

 Lloyd, in his Field Sports of the North of Europe, mentions 

 having " bagged upwards of thirty couple of Snipes in seven 

 or eight hours." These were either the Common, or the 

 Double Snipe, Scolopax major, as he was careless of wasting 

 his powder and shot about the Jack, or Half-Snipe. Lin- 

 naeus, in the Journal of his Tour in Lapland, says, under date 

 of the l4th of May, 1732, when near Gefle, in the marshes 

 the note of the Snipe was heard continually. Mr. Dann tells 

 me the Common Snipe is far more widely dispersed than the 

 Great Snipe. It breeds in extensive morasses and swamps in 

 the mountainous districts of Norway and Sweden, as well as 

 in the small mosses and bogs in the cultivated districts. 

 From Scona to Lapland, both eastern and western, it is 

 widely distributed. The eggs are generally three or four, 

 and the nest is placed on a hummocky tuft of grass in the 

 morass. They migrate south in the middle of August, from 

 the northern parts, although they linger in the south of 

 Sweden until October. This bird goes in summer as far 

 north as the Faroe Islands, Iceland, and Greenland. Pen- 

 nant, in his Arctic Zoology, says, it is found in all parts of 

 Russia and Siberia. It breeds in Germany, Holland, and 

 France. It is found also in Spain, Provence, Switzerland, 

 and Italy. Sir Humphrey Davy mentions, that the Com- 



