278 SCOLOPACID.E. 



302. Gallinag-o coelestis (Frenzel). Tlie Common Snipe. 



Moorish. Bon monkar (Father of the bill). Spanish. Near 

 Gibraltar, Agachadiza ; further north, Agachona ; near Malaga, 

 Agachadera. 



Favier remarks that on the African side " the Common Snipe 

 is fonnd very plentiful around Tangier from the month of October 

 until February," which may be said of them likewise as regards 

 the Spanish side of the Straits ; and although better sport is to 

 be had with this (in a sporting sense) king of birds on the 

 Moorish side, the amusement is, as has been already stated, 

 greatly reduced by the want of accommodation and utter absence 

 of comfort ; not that there is much of the latter in many places 

 on the Andalucian side. At Casas Viejas, Snipe sometimes 

 arrive as early as the beginning of September. I have heard of 

 a straggler during August (one was shot by Verner in the Soto 

 Malabrigo on the 21st of that month in 1879), but the greater 

 quantity do not put in an appearance till the end of October and 

 the first week in November. They commence their departure 

 in March ; and by the first week in April all have disappeared 

 except a stray loiterer, perhaps a wounded bird. We noticed 

 one as late as the 3rd of May, having observed it for several days 

 previously in the same situation, and would not shoot it, wishing 

 to see how long it would remain : this bird did not appear to 

 have anything the matter with it. I never heard the drumming 

 noise of the Snipe in Andulacia though at home in England I 

 have occasionally heard them drumming of an evening in the 

 New Forest as early as the 20th of January, the weather then 

 being unusually mild, and the place where they were heard 

 being their regular nesting-ground. 



I have often noticed that, in the marshes both in Morocco and 

 Andalucia, the best ground for Snipe was a spot where sedges 

 and rushes had been burnt during the summer ; but the conse- 

 quent absence of cover in these places rendered it useless to try 

 and walk up to the birds, and the only way was to stand or sit 



