THE COMMON SNIPE. m 



much more barred, the chestnut becoming a speckled grey-brown; chest and sides 

 of the body light brown, spotted with dark brown ; belly white ; tinder tail-coverts 

 rusty ; axillaries white, narrowly barred with black ; feet and legs greenish-brown. 

 Length about loj inches; wing, closed, a shade under five. 



Young birds are dingier in hue, and the chestnut on the back is duller, but 

 greater in extent ; the axillaries are sometimes plain unbarred smoky grey, some- 

 times partially of this colour; not seldom those of one side, or part of those 

 under one wing, are like this, the other side being barred as in the adult. 



The bird described as Sabiue's Snipe is only a dusky, or melanic form of the 

 young of this bird. Instead of the normal colours, it is dull brown all over, barred 

 with paler yellow-brown. Cream-coloured and white Snipes occur sometimes. 



Nestling (Laxadalr, Iceland, 15, 7, '85) : a lovely little creature, of the most 

 delicate chestnut-brown above, mottled irregularly with black, and varied with soft 

 grey tips to some of the downy plumes; throat pale brown, chest ruddier; belly 

 grey-brown ; iris very dark brown ; feet and legs yellowish-brown. 



The nest is an inartistic affair, being a mere hollow, usually amongst grass, 

 often on a rushy tussock, lined with a few bents. The eggs are four in number, 

 pyriform, varying in ground-colour from light olive to greenish -buff, boldly 

 marked with purplish-grej^ and rich dark brown, chiefly at the larger end. Length 

 ij inches by nearly i. If any mischance occurs to the eggs, a fresh nest is 

 usually made, and often three eggs only laid in it. They nest as early as the 

 end of March, but usually lay in April. On the other hand, young in down are 

 sometimes found as late as August in the British Isles. 



Snipe frequent river sides, osier beds and marshes, as is well known, feeding 

 by probing the wet soil with their bills. On August 8th, 1894, at 'As, in North 

 Iceland, I was finishing my morning toilet by a small waterfall, which fell into a 

 little muddy pool. Just across the latter, and not twenty yards from me, two 

 Snipes were diligently probing the bare mud for their breakfasts, utterly indifferent 

 to my presence. It was not warm, and I was incompletely dressed, but such a 

 chance rarely comes even in a naturalist's way, so I waited a full half-hour to 

 watch them. Should the bill, when thrust into the mud, come in contact with 

 the smallest living creature, its slightest wriggle is instantly perceptible to the 

 delicate senses of the Snipe, in the bill of which may be seen the same arrange- 

 ment of nerves and sensory pits as has been already mentioned in the case of the 

 Woodcock (page 107). During the day Snipe are often found in turnip fields, 

 when the ground is tolerably wet, and a hundred or more occasionally rise from 

 the same field. Also they have a great affection for sewage farms, where the rank 

 vegetation affords them cover and abundant food, and the ground is always soft. 



