226 MIGRATION. 



summer, they left that part of the country in the middle 

 of August, or say a whole month earlier.* 



The migrations of the Solitary Snipe are said to take 

 place simultaneously that is, at the same time as the hirds 

 bred in the southern parts of the country depart for foreign 

 lands, those that have passed the summer months in the 

 interior and far North, leave their breeding-grounds for the 

 coast. These, as with the Woodcock, are believed to travel 

 by slow journeys, resting frequently by the way. At their 

 several halting-places there is, therefore, a constant change 

 of visitors ; for as the one batch moves farther south 

 another succeeds it, and thus the movement goes on as 

 long as any remain in the country. 



As with other defenceless birds, the migrations of the 

 Solitary Snipe always take place in the night-time ; not, 

 however, in greater or lesser flights, as with several other 

 hirds of passage, but singly, or in couples, or it may be in 

 families. On leaving the Scandinavian shores, they steer 

 a much more easterly course than their congeners the 

 AVood cocks, and the Common and the Jack Snipe (of 

 whom so many regularly winter with us in England), as 

 is evident from the fact that it is only 011 rare occasions 

 that they visit our country, and then, probably, owing 

 solely to having been driven there by northerly gales in 

 the autumn, or easterly in the spring. 



Although the Solitary Snipe is the first of the Scolopa- 



* Sir Humphry Davy would appear to entertain tin- like view c.f tin- 

 subject; for when speaking of the Batituy Snipe he says: " Their late 

 passage this year (1H28) would seem t.. h.i\e Keen :m indication of a wet 

 Rummer in the north of Kuro|>e ; Imt to form an opinion upon t'aets of this 

 kind requires much knowledge and caution. The [lerfeetioii of the larva- 

 of the Tilmla- on which this Sni]K' feeds, depends upon a nuinlxTof eiivuin- 

 stancea: the t. m|H-iatuie of the last year; the jH-riotl when the eggs were 

 laid : the In-ill of tin- Witter when they were depo-.it, -d. and the ipiantit\ of 

 rain alterwardx" 



