COMMON SNIPE 299 



perhaps thousands of years ago, on account of physical changes in 

 the earth's surface, or of a change hi the system of the bird itself. 



Common Snipe. 

 Gallinago caelestis. 



Upper plumage mottled black and chestnut-brown ; flanks 

 barred with white and dusky; under parts white. Length, ten 

 inches and a half. 



The common snipe, like the woodcock, breeds in limited num- 

 bers throughout the British Islands. But the woodcock nests in 

 woods, and, owing to the increase of plantations, the bird as a breed- 

 ing species has increased with us. Just the contrary has happened 

 with the snipe. He is a breeder in marshes, fens, and low, wet 

 grounds, and as drainage and cultivation deprive him of suitable 

 localities to nest in, he diminishes hi numbers. Most of the birds 

 that winter in our islands are migrants from Scandinavia ; they 

 come hi October and November, and remain until March. During 

 the winter months they are often compelled by changes in the 

 weather to shift their feeding-grounds, and intense cold is very fatal 

 to them. Their soft, sensitive bills must have a soft soil to probe 

 in, and frost cuts off their food-supply. When approached, the 

 snipe seeks to avoid observation by crouching close to the earth, 

 where its mottled upper plumage fits in well with the colour of the 

 boggy or wet ground ; on taking wing it rushes upwards with a 

 violent zigzag flight, uttering at the same time a sharp, scraping cry, 

 two or three times repeated. Late in March or early in April the 

 snipes pair, and it is then that the males begin to practise their curious 

 aerial exercises, familiar to anyone who observes wild bird life, and 

 about which so much has been said by ornithologists. The perform- 

 ance takes place at all hours of the day, but chiefly towards evening, 

 the bird rising to an immense height in the air, and precipitating him- 

 self downwards with astonishing violence, producing hi his descent 

 the peculiar sound variously described as drumming, bleating, 

 scythe-whetting, and neighing. From this sound the snipe has 

 been named in some districts ' moor-lamb ' and ' heather-bleater.' 

 As to how the sound is produced opinions differ still, although the 

 question has been discussed for over a century. Probably it is in 

 part vocal and partly produced by the whig-feathers. 



