286 ADDITIONAL NOTES. 



The snipe is one of the most generally distributed birds 

 belonging to Europe. It feeds upon almost every kind of worm, 

 or larva, and, as I have said before, its stomach sometimes con- 

 tains seeds and rice ; it prefers a country cold in the summer to 

 breed in ; but wherever there is much fluid water, and great 

 morasses, this bird is almost certain to be found. Its nest is 

 veiy inartificial, its 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 drumming noise above the head, as if to divert 

 the attention of the intruder. A few snipes always breed in the 

 marshes of England and Scotland, but a far greater number 

 retire for this purpose to the Hebrides and the Orkneys. In the 

 heather surrounding a small lake in the island of Hoy, in the 

 Orkneys, I found in the month of August, in 1817, the nests of 

 ten or twelve couple of snipes. I was grouse-shooting, and my 

 dog continually pointed them, and, as there were sometimes 

 three young ones and two old ones in the nest, the scent was 

 very powerful. From accident of the season these snipes were 

 very late in being hatched, for they usually fly before the middle 

 of July; but this year, even as late as the 15th of August, there 

 were many young snipes that had not yet their wing feathers. 

 Snipes are usually fattest in frosty weather, which, I believe, is 

 owing to this, that in such weather they haunt only warm 

 springs, where worms are abundant, and they do not willingly 

 quit these places, so that they have plenty of nourishment and 

 rest, both circumstances favourable to fat. In wet, open 

 weather, they are often obliged to make long flights, and their 

 food is more distributed. The jack-snipe feeds upon smaller 

 insects than the snipe : small white larvae, such as are found in 

 black bogs, are its favourite food, but I have generally found 

 seeds in its stomach, once hemp-seeds, and always gravel. I 

 know not where the jack-snipe breeds, but I suspect far north. 

 I never saw their nest or young ones in Germany, France, 

 Hungary, Illyria, or the British Islands. The common snipe 

 breeds in great quantities in the extensive marshes of Hungary 

 and Illyria ; but I do not think the jack- snipe breeds there, for, 

 even in July and August, with the first very dry weather, many 



