324 BIKDS OF NORFOLK. 



guish a bird in some spot where, even though pointed 

 out to him, the novice may look in vain. I never re- 

 member to have detected a whole snipe in a marsh before 

 its warning cry of "scape, scape" on rising attracted 

 my notice, but I have caught sight of jack snipes sitting 

 close to my feet more than once ; and occasionally, when 

 rowing by the side of a reed-bed on the broads, the 

 bright eye of a snipe, squatting close to the water's edge, 

 has suddenly caught my own, though otherwise, even 

 within a yard of me, it would have passed unnoticed. 

 During frost and snow, however, when pinched with 

 the severity of the weather, I have more than once come 

 upon a snipe feeding by the side of an open stream, 

 too busily engaged in "boring" to be aware of my 

 approach. Mr. Harting also states in his "Birds of 

 Middlesex" that on one occasion having surprised a 

 snipe under similar circumstances, it squatted down in 

 the water as soon as it was aware of his presence, and 

 was only flushed at last by a pebble thrown at it. The 

 food of this species consists chiefly of earthworms, with 

 insects and small mollusca.* 



With snipes as with woodcocks, it is difficult to 

 arrive at any satisfactory estimate of the numbers that 

 formerly visited this county as compared with the pre- 

 sent time.f Then, as now, exceptional cases occurred 



* In confinement they will readily eat bread and milk, and on 

 this food Mr. Edward Newton reared some, caught when half 

 grown, till they were fully fledged. They thrived admirably until 

 sent to the Zoological Gardens, when they immediately died. 



f It is somewhat singular that in the L'Estrange " Household 

 Book" snipes are but once entered, " Itm v snypys," but no price 

 given, and they were probably too common for Sir Thomas 

 Browne to notice them in his " List." In the " Northumberland 

 Household Book " they are ordered to be bought " for my Lordes 

 owne Mees at Pryncipall Feystes so they be good, and after iij 

 a j d - "; a pretty good evidence of their abundance at that time. 



