CHAPTER XVII. 



The Common Snipe. Widely dispersed. Accidental Varieties. Resorts. 

 Food. Social Habits. Breeding. It drums. Curious Legend. 

 Migration. The Jack Snipe. Extensively spread. Snipe-shooting. 

 Widtskofle. The Ruff. Its Pugnacity. 



Common Snipe (Enkel Beckasin, or single snipe, 

 Sw. ; Skuddefoll, or horse of the mist, Norw. ; 

 Dolbelt Bekkasin, or double snipe, Danish; Scolopax 

 Oallinago, Linn.) was a summer visitor with us, as also 

 throughout the length and hreadth of Scandinavia, as 

 high up at least as the 70 ; but it is much more plentiful 

 in the midland and southern parts of the Peninsula than 

 in the far North. In Denmark it is also very numerous. 

 The Danish name for this bird is identical, it will be 

 noticed, with that by which the Solitary Snipe is known 

 in Sweden. Naturalists and sportsmen will therefore do 

 well to bear this circumstance in mind, or otherwise great 

 mistakes may be made. 



The Common Snipe is much more generally distri- 

 buted than its congeners the Woodcock and the Solitary 



