SHUNS WOODLANDS. 219 



grass would almost seem to be essential to its existence, in 

 the breeding season at least ; for if, owing to increased 

 cultivation, or other causes, it disappears, the bird, we are 

 told, deserts its usual haunts, and nests elsewhere. 



We are further informed that the Solitary Snipe 

 has an invincible aversion to localities even partially 

 overgrown with wood ; and that during the breeding 

 season it never dwells in a so-called Skogs-ling, or bushy 

 pasture. But, bearing in mind Mr. Dann's remarks as to 

 its nesting near willow bushes, &c., I must confess to some 

 doubts as to the correctness of this statement ; the rather 

 as, during the autumn, when these birds are migrating, it 

 is not at all unusual to meet with them amongst scattered 

 scrub bushes, where the ground is wet and marshy. 



The Solitary Snipe would not appear to be erratic in 

 its habits, at least during its stay in Scandinavia. We 

 are told, indeed, that from its first arrival in the spring to 

 the end of July, when migration commences, it confines 

 itself almost entirely to the moor or the meadow that it 

 has selected for its summer abode, and seldom or never 

 leaves it unless it may be to repair to its Lek-stalle, or 

 pairing-ground. 



Its food consists of larvse,* water insects, and small 



a j? rom t Qe food, anc l the remains of food, found in the Solitary 

 Snipe's stomach, which is the thinnest amongst birds of the Scolopax tribe,' 

 says Sir Humphrey Davy, " I think I have ascertained that it requires a 

 kind of worm, which is not found in winter even in the temperate climes 

 of Europe ; and that it feeds differently from the Common Snipe. There 

 are certainly none found after the end of October in either Illyria or Italy; 

 and I believe the same may be said of the end of May, as to their summer 

 migration, or their breeding migration. I have opened the stomachs of at 

 least a dozen of these birds, and their contents were always of the same 

 kind : long, slender, white, hexapode larva?, or their skins, of different sizes, 

 from that of the maggot of the horse-fly to one thrice as long. I believe 

 all th<Jse insects were the larva; of the different species of the Tibulir (flies 

 known by the common designation of Father Long-legs). In the Common 



