292 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



out their necks, throw back the head almost upside down, and open and shut 

 their beaks rapidly, uttering a curious noise like that produced by running the 

 finger along the edge of a comb." Sometimes these notes were uttered just 

 after the bird had taken a short flight, or spread its wings and tail. As many as 

 six birds were counted in the air together, during this singular tournament, in 

 another locality. The nest of the Great Snipe is either made amongst the long 

 coarse grass which the bird frequents, or in the centre of a tussock of rush or 

 sedge. It is merely a shallow depression lined with dry grass and sometimes a 

 little moss. The eggs are four in number, and vary in ground-colour from olive 

 and greyish-buff to brownish-buff, handsomely and heavily spotted and blotched 

 with rich dark brown and pale brown, and with numerous and large underlying 

 markings of violet-brown and grey. Most of the blotches are obliquely dis- 

 tributed, and on some eggs many streaks are to be seen. They are pyriform, 

 and measure on an average 1'8 inch in length by T25 inch in breadth. The 

 eggs are laid at the end of May in some localities, nearly a month later (the 

 middle to the end of June) in others. Incubation lasts from seventeen to eighteen 

 days. One brood only is reared in the year. 



Diagnostic characters. Gallinago, with the major portion of the four 

 outer rectrices on each side white, and with broad white tips to the median wing 

 coverts. Length, 10^ to 11^ inches. 



