SABINE SNIPE. COMMON SNIPE. 149 



Of well-defined distinctive marks to admit it to the specific 

 qualification of a species, the sabine snipe has never occurred 

 in any instance outside the range of the British Islands. In 

 England some three or four instances are noted, but in Scot- 

 land it has never been observed, whilst in Ireland as many as 

 fourteen authenticated instances have occurred, in various 

 counties, during autumn and winter. In the fine collection 

 of birds in the University Museum, as many as four of these 

 rare snipe are preserved, all of which were obtained by the 

 assiduity of Dr. R. Ball, who collected them. 



In the course of Mr. R. Glennon's practice he has preserved 

 no less than six of this species, which were familiarly known 

 to the persons who obtained them as u black snipe." 



Regarding its breeding haunts and habits all ornithologists 

 are totally ignorant. 



Habitat unknown. 



SPECIES 139 THE COMMON SNIPE. 



Scolopax gallinago. Linn. 

 Becassine ordinaire. Temm. 



Heather Bleat. 



THE COMMON SNIPE is a species so well known in Ireland 

 that few are entirely unacquainted with it. 



Interesting to the naturalist as it is familiar to the sports- 

 man, it is scattered over the island in an abundance to which 

 the sister kingdom can offer no comparison. 



Indifferent as to locality during winter, the snipe frequents 

 any piece of water, open drain, or marshy field, where it can 

 obtain food ; at times in such proximity to cities that we 

 have known some hundreds to be taken collectively during 

 many years' observation around the outskirts of the city of 

 Dublin. 



Retiring inland during summer, the snipe enlivens every 

 locality in which it nidifies with its curious habits, which 

 bear a close resemblance to those of the peewit in the grace 

 and beauty of aerial motion. Ascending high in the air, 

 with a half circular, sweeping flight, varied by an occasional 

 dip downwards in the air, it performs the most extravagant 

 variations on the wing, all accompanied with that peculiar 

 drumming noise which has obtained for it the name of hea- 

 ther bleat, which in every country has been similarly con- 

 nected with a goat's bleat, as the Scotch, Irish, and Welsh 

 names for it signify the air goat, and it is similarly distin- 

 guished in Continental Europe. 



