OSPREY—SXI/'E 



299 



Speaking generally, the plover tribe may he said to he never at 

 home except in the vicinity of water, on the marsh, or on the shore. 

 Of these, the snipe (Gallinago coelestis) is peculiarly a hird of the swamp, 

 frequenting situations where the ground is not covered either too much or too 

 little with grasses, reeds, or 

 hushes, for it has not only 

 to hide among the plants, 

 hut to wade between them 

 through shallow water, and 

 to rise clear of hindrance, 

 No bird is better known 

 as a migrant ; it winters 

 in southern Europe, north 

 Africa, and India, and 

 breeds principally in central 

 and northern Europe, as 

 well as in similar latitudes 

 through Asia, mostly below 

 the line of the growth of 

 trees. In northern Ger- 

 many, Holland, Denmark, 

 Scandinavia, the Baltic 

 provinces, Russia, and 

 Siberia it is very common, 

 as it also is on the Danube, 

 as far down as the Dob- 

 rudscha. It is a familiar 

 bird all over the British 

 Isles, and is resident in 

 Iceland and the Faeroes. 

 The nest is placed on hill- 

 ocks in swamps, in tufts 

 of grass on watery meadows, 

 or in open spaces between 

 willow and alder bushes. 

 The building of the nest 

 is begun by pressing down 

 a tuft of grass, or rushes 

 in the middle, and thereby 

 forming a hollow which is 

 then covered loosely with dry grass or sedge. In the second half of April the 

 nest contains four pointed eggs, from which after sixteen days emerge the 

 spotted young, which leave the nest so soon as they are dry, their parents 

 taking them about with them for some four weeks, by which time they are 

 fully fledged. Above the nesting-place the cock seems to delight in performing 

 strange evolutions during pairing-time, at one moment darting up spirally to the 



THE SNIPE. 



