

COMMON SNIPE. 31 



eggs are generally three or four, and the nest is placed on a 

 hummocky tuft of grass in the morass. They migrate 

 south in the middle of August, from the northern parts, 

 although they linger in the south of Sweden until October. 

 This bird goes in summer as far north as the Faroe Islands, 

 Iceland, and Greenland. Pennant, in his Arctic Zoology, 

 says, it is found in all parts of Eussia and Siberia. It 

 breeds in Germany, Holland, and France. It is found also 

 in Spain, Provence, Switzerland, and Italy. It is common 

 at Corfu, Sicily, and Crete in winter, and is observed as a 

 bird of passage at Malta in September and February. Sir 

 Humphrey Davy mentions, that the Common Snipe breeds 

 in great quantities in the extensive marshes of Hungary and 

 Illyria. In 1828, in the drains about Laybach, in Illyria, 

 these birds were seen in the middle of July. Mr. Strick- 

 land observes, that it is abundant in the marshes about 

 Smyrna in winter, and it is said to go to Lower Egypt. 



In winter the beak is dark brown at the end, pale reddish 

 brown at the base ; the irides dark brown ; from the base 

 of the beak to the eye a dark brown streak ; over the 

 streak, over the eye and the ear-coverts, a streak of pale 

 brown ; all the upper part of the head very dark brown, 

 divided along the centre by a single pale brown streak ; 

 back, dark brown, slightly spotted with pale brown ; inter- 

 scapulars, and scapulars dark brown in the centre, with 

 broad external, lateral margins of rich buff, forming four 

 conspicuous lines along the upper surface of the body; wing- 

 coverts spotted with pale brown, on a ground of dull black, 

 and tipped with white ; tertials barred with pale brown, on 

 a black ground ; the primaries dull black, secondaries the 

 same, but tipped with white ; upper tail-coverts barred, 

 alternately, with pale brown, and dusky black ; tail-feathers 

 fourteen, basal half dull black, varied on the margins with 



