THE BIRD-LIFE OF LONDON 



observer of bird-life who confines his efforts to the species 

 in his back garden or amongst his chimney-pots. It is a 

 shy and skulking species, very rarely coming into view, 

 hiding away amongst the tussocks of vegetation in wet 

 places, most active during the night, and performing its 

 migrations at that time. It leaves its winter retreats 

 in London by March, and begins to return to them as 

 early as August, its numbers increasing during September 

 and October. The flight of this bird when first flushed 

 is uneven and erratic, but soon becomes steadier, and is 

 seldom far prolonged, unless during migration. The 

 bird by no means uncommonly perches in trees, but 

 this is during the mating season, when, like so many other 

 of its kind, it seems to drop its skulking ways and to pay 

 court to its mate in the air. The love flights and drum- 

 ming of the Snipe during this period are very remarkable 

 and interesting. The food of this Snipe consists chiefly 

 of worms, grubs, insects, and small fresh-water molluscs. 

 The bird is solitary in its habits in our country, but 

 abroad more social tendencies are remarked. A good 

 deal of this, however, may be due to the abundance of 

 favourite food in a small area, and not to any social 

 impulse. The Snipe's breeding season commences to- 

 wards the end of March, and eggs are laid during April 

 and May in our islands, later in more northern latitudes. 

 The nest is a mere hollow in some dry spot in the marshes, 

 lined with a few bits of dead herbage. The four eggs 

 range from buff to olive in ground colour, blotched and 

 spotted with rich dark brown, paler brown and grey, 

 and occasionally streaked with blackish brown. But 

 one brood is reared in the year. 



The adult Snipe has the general colour of the upper 

 parts black, with two broad lines of pale buff on each 

 side of the back, formed by the margins to the scapulars 

 and mantle ; the rump and upper tail-coverts are rufous, 

 barred with brownish black ; the eye-stripes and a broad 

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