THE WADERS 



447 



size may lay an egg weighing more than anent the sounds made by the Common 

 an ounce ! Snipe. Three of these are well known, 



\\'ith both Woodcock and Common two of which are vocal — the " scaape, 

 Snipe flesh is rapidly lost during very scaape " note of alarm, regularly uttered 

 severe weather, and as rapidly gained when the bird is flushed, and the " chaacha, 

 at its break up. 



The Jack Snipe, be- 

 sides its difference in 

 size, and the compara- 

 tive shortness of its 

 beak, may be known 

 from the full Snipe by 

 its darker, more me- 

 tallic blue-black back 

 feathers, and the con- 

 spicuous dark cream - 

 coloured stripe on either 

 side when the wings are 

 closed. The breast and 

 belly of both Snipes are 

 white, but in the Wood- 

 cock buff and black 

 barred and vermicu- 

 lated throughout, as is 

 less definiteh' the case 

 with the Great or 

 Sohtary Snipe, which, 

 however, is only an ir- 

 regular autumn visitor. 



During the whole of 

 its sojourn here, from 

 the third week of Sep- 

 tember to the first 

 week of April, the Jack 

 Snipe is practically a 

 silent and a solitary 

 bird ; it never collects 

 in whisps, as the Com- 

 mon Snipe frequently 

 does. Easily frightened 

 as is the larger bird — one rising and 

 "scaaping" frequently sends every other 

 full Snipe into the air for yards around 

 — the crouching Jacks will not take wing 

 until almost trodden upon. However 

 thickly the}' may lie. the disturbance of 

 one will not result in the unsettling 

 even of its nearest neighbour. If half a 

 dozen of them are in the air together, 

 each, on rising, will noiselessly depart 

 quite independently of the direction 

 taken by the others. Neither will any 

 one fly far before it suddenly pitches 

 down again 



Much correspondence has taken place 



WOODCOCK'S NEST AND KGGS. 



chaacha " breeding-call. The " baa-ing " 

 noise made in flight (in summer flight I 

 was going to say, but my note-books 

 remind me that I have, at odd times, 

 chronicled it in winter) is generally 

 supposed to be made by the \-ibration of 

 the tail feathers as the air rushes through 

 them ; though some people still contend 

 that the quivering quiU feathers of the 

 wings aid in giving this wader the 

 sobriquet of " summer lamb." Certain 

 it is, however, that the deceptive and 

 far-reaching " drumming " is made whilst 

 the bird is descending through the air and 

 facing the wind. 



M.\URiCE C. H. Bird. 



