RETIRED HABITS. 217 



many are then quite silent, others do give forth a short 

 and coarse sound, which may be represented by the word 

 bad. Some say this cry is confined to very obese birds, 

 and only emitted by them the first time of being flushed, 

 as afterwards they are altogether mute. 



The Solitary Snipe would appear well deserving of 

 its English epithet ; for one never meets with these birds 

 in flights, or " wisps," as with the Common Snipe. A good 

 many, it is true, may occasionally be met with in near 

 proximity to each other ; but it is the goodness of the 

 pasture, I take it, and not a social feeling, that thus brings 

 them together. As evidence of such being the case, it 

 may be mentioned, that should several be flushed at the 

 same time, each one always takes its own independent 

 course. Commonly, one only meets with a single bird, or 

 a couple, at the same spot. It may happen, however, 

 that three or four others, forming, probably, part of 

 the same family, are lying close at hand, and which, on 

 hearing the report of the gun, likewise take wing. 



We are told by a writer in " Svenska Jagarforbundcts 

 Nya Tidskrift," a periodical of great merit that, 

 "owing to the love entertained by the Solitary Snipe 

 for low and marshy ground, bordering on water-courses, 

 it follows that its dwelling-places are but little above 

 the level of the sea; and this bird, therefore, belongs 

 properly to the low lands of the Old World." But 

 this must surely be a mistake; because we learn from 

 the late Mr. Richard Bann, a good naturalist, who 

 spent many summers in Scandinavia, that, to his personal 

 knowledge, "the Solitary Snipe nests in considerable 

 numbers in the mountainous parts of both Sweden and 

 Norway, as high up as the range of the birch woods 

 extend. ... On the Dovre fjeld at Jerkin, and at 

 Fogstuen, some thousands of feet above the sea-level," 

 he goes on to say, "they are numerous on the grassy 



