COMMON SNIPE 



Gal Imago ccelestis 



HE Common Snipe is a pretty generally distributed resi- 

 dent throughout the British Islands, breeding wherever 

 swampy ground is to be found. It is commonest in 

 Ireland, where the extensive bogs which are its haunts arc 

 most widely distributed, and is, for the same reason, rather 

 commoner in Scotland than in England. It breeds in the 

 Orkneys and Shetlands, as well as in the Outer Hebrides. 

 The Common Snipe is a very solitary bird in its habits, and is never 

 seen in flocks. Even on migration they travel in pairs or singly, and when 

 flushed from their favourite haunts they generally rise one at a time at some little 

 distance from each other. Except in the breeding-season, when the male is 

 occupied in 'drumming, 1 it is rarely seen on the wing during the day unless dis- 

 turbed. Its feeding-time is in the early morning or at twilight, when it emerges 

 from the shelter of the coarse rushes and sedges where it has been skulking 

 all day, and walks about, probing the mud for the tiny worms and larva: on 

 which it feeds. If the tracks of a Snipe be examined on the soft mud, small 

 holes will be seen all round them where it has been probing with its bill, 

 which is provided with a soft reticulated surface near the tip, full of very 

 sensitive nerves, with which it feels for its food. This is chiefly composed of 

 slugs, tiny shellfish, the larvae of water insects, and small worms, occasionally 

 varied by the succulent roots of various water-plants. 



The Snipe is not very partial to the sea-shore, as its haunts are the same 

 in winter as in summer, though it is usually found in the vicinity of running 

 water during the former season, and in the marshes and swamps during the 

 latter. When flushed it rises very quickly from the ground, usually uttering 

 a harsh note, which may be represented on paper by 'yaystc/i,' generally 

 repeated twice or thrice as it flies away, for the first few seconds in a zigzag 

 course, and then swiftly and steadily till it drops down into some new cover. 

 VOL. u. E 17 



