" Summer Snipes" 61 



one will leap, showing head and shoulders, and some- 

 times the whole body, and sending a circle of dancing 

 ripples over the place, with an indescribably lustrous 

 and beautiful effect. For these reasons I do not be- 

 lieve that the water-voles are, in any respect, car- 

 nivorous.* Four years ago, indeed, the moor-hens in 

 spite of all their enemies had increased to such an 

 extent that my friend, the resident in the place, tells me 

 he had most unwillingly to shoot a number of them. 

 They made a favourite feeding-ground in a field at the 

 side of the pond, and did much damage there one 

 corner of it being eaten bare. 



Occasionally as I have stood fishing there in July or 

 August, a pair, or perhaps three of what are called 

 locally "summer snipe," not the common sandpiper, 

 however, would suddenly dash over the pond, and, if 

 I could only keep still enough, or creep silently under 

 cover of near foliage, would settle on the margin, and 

 make sundry observations, no doubt in search of some 

 particular tid-bit, which they do not just then find so 

 easily elsewhere. Very beautiful are they with their 

 whitish throats and breasts, and dark velvety back, and 

 red or chestnut-tipped wings a somewhat swallow- 

 like appearance at first glance, though they are much 

 bigger and long-billed. Their flight is very quick, 

 and their cry is a sharp short whistle. The last 

 memorable occasion on which I saw them, and when, 

 unfortunately in one respect I was not alone, was on 

 Saturday, August 27, 1887, when my good friend, the 

 resident on the place, was at my side. He regretted 



* Since this was written, a friend has pointed out to me an article in 

 Science <.( i886/pp. 155-158),'^ which Mr. G. T. Rope says that 

 even the common bank -vole is a purely vegetable feeder. He has 

 kept these creatures in confinement for longjperiods. 



