SCOLOPACID^E. 411 



another descent was made, and after the same 

 movements had been repeated with most aston- 

 ishing regularity for some fifteen or twenty mi- 

 nutes, a sloping flight was directed towards the 

 ground, and, throwing the wings above the back, at 

 the same time uttering a rapid ' chucking ' cry, it 

 dropped out of sight amongst the grass. There an 

 be very little doubt that the bleating sound is made 

 by the wings, for it is only heard while the bird is 

 descending with them extended ; never at any other 

 time." 



The nest of the Snipe is generally placed amongst 

 heather or long grass, no particular care being taken 

 to conceal it. Meyer says it is usually lined with a 

 few dry bents and stalks of heath or bog-plants. 



The food consists mostly of worms, which the 

 bird procures by boring with its long and sensitive 

 beak in the soft ground it usually frequents ; as well 

 as worms, it appears to eat insects and vegetable 

 substances.* The beak of this, as of all the true 

 Snipes, is peculiarly soft and sensitive towards the 

 tip : when dried the soft skin of this part shrivels 

 up and looks as if pitted all over with small holes 

 Yarrell says like the end of a thimble : this peculiar 

 soft and sensitive nature of the beak ma}^, in some 

 way, account for the way in which Snipes suffer from 

 starvation when the ground is very hard with frost, 



* Meyer's ' British Birds,' vol. v., p. 52. 



