THE TRUE SNIPES. 213 



is the case, for the tips to the primary-coverts are large, and 

 the tips of the secondaries scarcely noticeable. The Great 

 Snipe also has sixteen tail-feathers, whereas the Common Snipe 

 has ov\\y fourteen. 



Range in Great Britain. An accidental visitor, of which a few 

 specimens are killed nearly every autumn, mostly on the 

 eastern and southern coasts, between the middle of August 

 and the middle of October. These autumn arrivals are gener- 

 ally young birds, but an adult has been killed near Yarmouth 

 in spring. Its occurrence in the central and western portions 

 of England is less frequent. In Scotland ten examples have 

 been identified ; while three Irish records were admitted up to 

 1889 in Mr. Howard Saunders' " Manual." One of these was 

 shot in Co. Gal way in October, 1888, and another was ob- 

 tained on Achill Island in November of the same year. 



Range outside the British Islands. The present species breeds 

 in Scandinavia up to 70 N. lat., and is also found nesting 

 more or less sparingly in Holland, Denmark, and Northern 

 Germany, as well as in Poland and Russia. Mr. Seebohm 

 places its range on the Petchora and the Ob at 67 N. lat., 

 but he states that in the Yen-e-sai Valley it does not extend 

 farther north than 66^. It visits South Africa in winter, 

 passing through the Caucasus and Persia, as well as the Medi- 

 terranean countries, on migration. 



Habits. Mr. Seebohm has given an interesting account of 

 the habits of the Great Snipe as observed by him on the 

 Petchora and the Yen-e-sai. " In both of these valleys," he 

 writes, " it was one of the last birds to reach the Arctic Circle, 

 in the former locality arriving on the 3rd of June, and in the latter 

 on the nth of that month. It migrates at night, singly or in 

 pairs, but, so far as is known, not in flocks. In the pairing- 

 season the males are gregarious, and have a sort of ' lek,' like 

 that of the Ruff, or of many species of Grouse. Late one even- 

 ing, as Harvie-Brown and I were drifting down the Petchora, 

 we came upon a large party of these birds, making curious 

 noises with their bills, in the long grass on the banks of the 

 river. Sometimes as many as half-a-dozen were on the wing 

 at once, but their flights were very short, and we succeeded in 

 shooting ten of them, which all proved to be males. I saw 



