BIRDS. 213 



way to prove what Mr. Gold, Lord Zetland's factor, considers 

 to be the case with the Orkney Snipe, i.e. that they are resident 

 to a very large extent. Of course, other causes have contri- 

 buted to their scarcity, such as drainage of their breeding and 

 feeding grounds, egging, and the increasing number of 

 " gunners." 



The largest bag Mr. Gold can ever remember being made 

 by one man, was 47^ couple, killed by a Mr. Farrar. 1 Mr. 

 Gold and two friends once killed fifty brace in a day, and Lord 

 Zetland has shot 22 J couple in about three hours in South 

 Eonaldsay. Great numbers of Snipe frequent a loch at 

 Burwick in the last-named island, and Mr. Gold has seen at 

 least 100 of these birds flying from the loch to the sea-shore 

 close at hand. At first he took them for Golden Plover, there 

 were so many together. 



In 1883 Buckley found Snipe abundant in Rousay, more 

 so, perhaps, in August and September than at any other time, 

 their visits in any quantity after that date being very uncertain. 

 Both in that year and in 1888, we found them breeding on 

 almost every island we visited, though perhaps less commonly 

 in the latter year. 



Mr. Watt of Skaill writes us that Snipe were numerous in 

 his parish before the pools of Mire, Scarwell, and Bain were 

 drained, the first-named place having been a favourite nesting 

 ground of theirs. 



As is well known, Snipe breed until very late in the season. 

 Mr. Moodie-Heddle once found a nest with the eggs just hatch- 

 ing, on 23d September 1858. 



The last-named gentleman sends us the following account 

 of a Snipe he kept in his garden : "I once found a Snipe with 

 one wing half off, but quite healed. It was healthy and in 

 good condition It tried to rise at my feet, and tumbled over, 

 making a great screaming. I carried it home and put it in a 

 walled garden of one acre in extent, where it lived for about 

 a year, getting over the winter. We left a few rows of peas 

 standing, as it liked to go among them. It then disappeared, 



1 Mr. Heddle's father had a note of forty-five couple being killed by one gun 

 in a day. 



