THE MOSS BIRDS. 



SNIPE. Common enough most of the year, but especially so 



{Scolopax gallinago.) d ur i n g the autumn and spring migration, when the 

 home breeders are considerably augmented in numbers 

 by the travellers from afar. Snipe are snared in 

 great numbers every autumn in what are locally 

 known as snipe "panties." Round the muddy edges 

 of the water in some flooded field is stretched a long 

 cord, from which innumerable horse-hair slip-nooses 

 are arranged. When setting the pantle, the men tread 

 the ground sideways with their feet, leaving in the 

 sodden ground what appears to be a narrow plash of 

 water at night Teal, plovers, snipe and plenty of 

 other small birds are the principal victims, and as 

 many as 60 or 70 in a single night during the flight 

 or migration time is not considered an unusual catch. 

 Snipe also breed with us in considerable numbers, 

 and I have found the young all hatched out by May 

 22nd. Little fluffy-looking, russet-coloured dots of 

 down, with their two little coal black eyes watching 

 one as they lie still as mice in some slight hollow in 

 the ground, whilst their parents wheel round us with 

 plaintive cries of despair. 



JACK SNIPE. 



(Limnocryptes 

 gallinula.) 



CURLEW. 



Not so plentiful as the above species, but yet by 

 no means rare. The stupidest bird alive. You 

 may miss him as often as you like, and if you 

 only stick to it and practice at him, you will 

 certainly bag him in an hour or so, for he seldom 

 flies beyond two hundred yards at a time. 



See SHORE BIRDS. This bird is not nearly so 

 common on the moss as on the shore. But on 



