CHAP. XIII. 



SNIPE. 



147 



We did not succeed in securing a common snipe,* but we 

 often heard their peculiar tic-tuc note, and the sound of 

 their drumming high in air. My companion identified a 

 snipe with his glass as belonging to this species; it was 

 uttering the characteristic tic-tuc ; and later, when it flew 

 to the ground, it rose again with the zig-zag flight be- 

 longing to this bird. We were not a little surprised the first 

 time we saw a common snipe perched upon the topmost 

 upright twig of a bare larch seventy feet above ground. 

 We soon grew familiar to the sight ; indeed, after what we 

 witnessed of the arboreal habits of birds we are not accus- 

 tomed to see perching in this country, we ceased to feel 

 surprise at the circumstance. The origin of this habit is 

 doubtless due to the flooding of the great tracts of country 

 by the annual overflow of rivers at the time of migration. 

 We saw but one small flock of Temminck's stint, feeding on 

 the marshy ground near one of the forest trees. We shot 

 them all, hoping to discover the "little stint" amongst them, 

 but we were disappointed. 



We found the greenshank and dusky redshank f abundant, 



* The common snipe (Scolopax gal- 

 linago, Linn.) breeds throughout the 

 arctic and sub-arctic regions of Europe 

 and Asia, from the British Islands east- 

 wards to the Pacific. It winters in 

 various parts of Southern Europe, 

 Persia, India, and China. On the 

 American continent a species is found 

 (Scolopax Wilsoni, Temm.) which many 

 ornithologists suppose to be identical 

 with the European bird. In the valley 



of the Petchora we found it as far north 

 as latitude 67°. 



f The spotted redshank (Totanus 

 fuscus, Linn.) appears to be confined to 

 the eastern hemisphere, being compara- 

 tively rare in the British Islands, 

 where it occurs only on migration, 

 more frequently in autumn than in 

 spring. It breeds in the northern parts 

 of Scandinavia, both above and below 

 the Arctic Circle, extending its range 



