300 BRITISH BIRDS 



The snipe makes a very slight nest of a few dried grass leaves 

 ami stalks, placed among rushes or by the side of a tussock of course 

 grass. Four eggs are laid, yellowish or greenish white, the larger 

 end spotted with various shades of brown. The female hatches the 

 eggs without assistance from her mate, who continues his play in 

 the air at intervals every day until the young are out. Two 

 broods are sometimes reared in the season. 



Jack-Snipe. 

 Limnocryptes gallinula. 



Upper parts mottled with buft, reddish brown, and black, the 

 latter exhibiting green and purple reflections; neck and breast 

 spotted ; belly white. Length, eight inches. 



The small jack-snipe is exclusively a winter visitor to this 

 country, never remaining to breed. It comes at the end of Septem- 

 ber and in October, and is found generally distributed in Great Britain 

 and Ireland, but in less numbers than the common snipe. In its 

 habits it is more solitary than that species, and sits closer, often 

 refusing to rise until almost trodden upon ; and when it flies it 

 utters no alarm-note. In April it leaves us, after assuming its 

 summer plumage, glossed with beautiful colours. In its breeding- 

 haunts in northern Europe and beyond the arctic circle the male 

 has an aerial performance similar to that of the common snipe, but 

 the sound produced \)\ the bird in descending is different, and 

 has been compared by Wolley to ' the cantering of a horse <>\<>r 

 a hard, hollow road ; it comes in fours, with a similar cadence and 

 a like clear yet hollow sound.' It makes its slight nest on the low 

 ground, and lays four eggs, very large for the bird, of a yellowish 

 olive colour, spotted and streaked with brown. 



Dunlin. 



Tringa alpina. 



Crown rufous streaked with black ; mantle chestnut variegated 

 with black ; rest of upper parts grey ; throat and upper breast gray- 

 ish white and striped ; lower breast black ; belly white. The 

 female is the largest, and measures eight inches. The winter plum- 



