SOLITARY SNIPE. 53 



sundry recent scratches on his face and shins, and 

 swears that he ' never had such hard work in the 

 whole coorse of his life. 1 



The great or solitary snipe (scolopax major) is 

 less frequently met with here than on the con- 

 tinent. Its favourite breeding-places are in the 

 north of Europe, and its autumnal line of mi- 

 gration lies rather to the eastward of the British 

 islands. Among the hundreds of snipes that I 

 have seen on the wing and killed in Ireland, 

 I never could detect a single example of scolopax 

 major, although until I became acquainted with 

 the characteristic distinctions between this and 

 the common snipe (scolopax gallinago), I used 

 occasionally to fancy that I had obtained a spe- 

 cimen of the rarer bird when I had only bagged 

 an unusually large or well-fed individual of the 

 other species. It is sometimes found in the cen- 

 tral and southern counties of England, but, as 

 might be expected, occurs most frequently on the 

 eastern coast. Some years ago, when shooting 

 on the Pontine Marshes near Rome, in the early 

 part of the winter, I killed three great snipes : 

 their flight was different from that of the com- 

 mon bird ; their bodies appeared much larger, 

 and the wings shorter in proportion ; they kept 

 much closer to the ground, and did not at least 

 as far as my experience went utter any cry, 



