160 THE GUN: AFIELD AND AFLOAT 



The Common Snipe does not go to nest quite so early 

 as the woodcock, neither is it so silent when there as is 

 its congener of the woodlands. The peculiar drumming 

 or bleating noise emitted by breeding snipe when on the 

 wing soon conveys the intimation to all at hand that 

 their nesting season has commenced. This character- 

 istic noise has caused the Common Snipe to be known 

 by the name " heather bleater " in Scotland ; whilst in 

 Ireland native words are applied to it signifying " air- 

 goat " or " kid of the air " ; and it is not a little singular 

 that in the extreme north of Europe the Laplanders 

 similarly term it " ram of the sky. " The Common 

 Snipe lays four eggs, which are so large that one 

 wonders how so small a body can cover them 

 sufficiently to successfully hatch them. 



Still, all told, our nesting snipe do not contribute 

 largely to the bag of the British snipe-shooter, and were 

 he solely dependent upon home-bred birds as food for 

 his powder and shot, his sport with the long-bills might 

 neither be very brisk nor long sustained. By far the 

 greater part of the snipe-shooting done in this country 

 is obtained with the foreign-bred birds. These begin 

 to arrive in September, the majority of these northern 

 migrants reaching our shores some time during the 

 latter half of October, or about the same time that the 

 larger flights of woodcock come across the North Sea. 

 By that time, in all likelihood, our summer snipe will, in 

 turn, have winged their way south possibly to provide 

 sport for gunners on Iberian marshes. 



During October and November the foreign snipe 

 from Northern Europe come in their thousands to take 

 up quarters on the bogs and marshes of these islands. 

 Those close observers and accurate recorders, Messrs. 



