28 SCOLOPACID^E. 



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. The nest is very inartificial, the 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.' 1 



Mr. Salmon, who, with his brother, passed three weeks 

 in the Orkneys in the summer of 1831, observes, " We 

 found the Snipe in abundance in every island wherever 

 there was the least moisture ; and their nests, in 

 general, were placed among the long grass, by the side of 

 the small lochs, and amid the long heather that grows upon 

 the sides of the hills." Mr. Hewitson met with several 

 nests upon Foula, the most westerly of the Shetland 

 Islands, among the dry heath on the side of a steep hill, 

 and at an elevation of not less than from 500 to 1000 feet 

 above the marshy plain. 



Before tracing the Snipe into other countries, I may notice 

 that the nest is very slight, consisting only of a few bits of 

 dead grass, or dry herbage, collected in a depression on the 

 ground, and sometimes upon, or under the side of a tuft of 

 grass or bunch of rushes. The eggs, four in number, of a 

 pale yellowish or greenish white, the larger end spotted with 

 two or three shades of brown ; these markings are rather 

 elongated, and disposed somewhat obliquely in reference to 

 the long axis of the egg ; the length of the egg about one 

 inch six lines, by one inch one line in breadth. The feeding 

 ground of the Snipe is by the sides of land springs, or in 



