34 scoLOPAcnxas. 



as the 15th of August, there were many young Snipes 

 that had not yet their wing-feathers. The nest is very in- 

 artificial, the eggs large, and the young ones soon become 

 of an enormous size, being often, before they can fly, 

 larger than their parents. Two young ones are usually 

 the number in a nest, but I have seen three. The old 

 birds are exceedingly attached to their offspring ; and, if any 

 one approach near the nest, they make a loud and drum- 

 ming noise above the head, as if to divert the attention of 

 the intruder." 



Mr. Salmon, who, with his brother, passed three weeks 

 in the Orkneys in the summer of 1831, observes, "We 

 found the Snipe in abundance in every island wherever 

 there was the least moisture ; and their nests, in general, 

 were placed among the long grass, by the side of the 

 small lochs, and amid the long heather that grows upon 

 the sides of the hills." Mr. Hewitson met with several 

 nests upon Foula, the most westerly of the Shetland 

 Islands, among the dry heath on the side of a steep hill, 

 and at an elevation of not less than from 500 to 1000 feet 

 above the marshy plain. 



Before tracing the Snipe into other countries, I may 

 notice that the nest is very slight, consisting only of a few 

 bits of dead grass, or dry herbage, collected in a depression 

 on the ground, and sometimes upon or under the side of a 

 tuft of grass or bunch of rushes. The eggs, four in num- 

 ber, of a pale yellowish or greenish white, the larger end 

 spotted with two or three shades of brown ; these markings 

 are rather elongated, and disposed somewhat obliquely in 

 reference to the long axis of the egg ; the length of the egg 

 about one inch six lines, by one inch one line in breadth. 

 The feeding-ground of the Snipe is by the sides of land 

 springs, or in water meadows ; and in low flat countries 

 they are frequently found among wet turnips. A writer 



