180 SNIPE SHOOTING. 



blue hawk. This bird, in running, has a peculiar 

 motion, or jerk, with the tail, which it outspreads at 

 the time in a fan-like manner. Its flight is rapid, 

 but tortuous. It is thin in August, and not then 

 very good eating ; about November it is as full and 

 fat as the epicure can desire. It is not a shy bird, 

 except where it congregates together, when it becomes 

 much more wary and timid. There are often-occur- 

 ring varieties of this, as w^ell as all the other species 

 of the feathered tribes. There is the Red-breasted 

 Snipe {Scolopax novahorencis) : — "In 1803, a small 

 flock of these was seen in Devonshire." Bewick 

 speaks of a singular field snipe, that was shot near 

 Offbrd : — " Its throat, breast, back, and wings, were 

 beautifully covered or streaked with w^hite ; and on 

 its forehead was a star of the natural colour : it had 

 also a ring round the neck and tail, with the tips of 

 the wings of the same colour." We have ourselves 

 seen an odd brick or orange legged snipe. The Red- 

 breasted Snipe is indifferently named by British 

 authors, the Brown Longbeak, Brown Snipe, Red- 

 breasted Snipe, Grey Snipe, from the varieties of its 

 winter and summer plumage : it is of the genus 

 Macrorhamjms, and not one of the true snipes ; is 

 know^i as far north as the Arctic Sea, and is speci- 

 fically a native of North America. 



The Great Snipe [Scolopax major). — In the 

 southern districts of our island we find this snipe as 

 an occasional bird of passage. It is of unusual occur- 

 rence both in Ireland and Scotland. Jardine men- 



