250 BRITISH BIRDS. 



twenty days, at a temperature of 102° Fah. He 

 remained in the incubator for twenty-four hours or so, 

 drying off, before he had his first meal. There is no 

 prettier young bird than a Snipe in down, the colour of 

 which is a rich reddish-brown, speckled with black, and 

 here and there tipped with white. Unfortunately a 

 pen and ink drawing (Fig. 1) cannot do justice to the bird 

 at this stage. The combination of colours renders the 

 chick extremely difficult to find in its natural surroundings, 

 even when one knows to within a foot or so where it is 

 hiding, and I may mention that a spaniel is a very 



.-^'^" 



Fig. 1. — A day old. 

 {Drawn by H. Wormald,) 



useful aid in searching for both eggs and young of 

 Plover, Redshank, and Snipe. 



For the first two days of his existence my young Snipe 

 ran backwards instead of forwards. I believe this is 

 the case in a wild state. The young do not pick up food 

 for themselves, like most young Avaders, but the parents 

 feed them from the bill. I had for some time believed 

 this to be the case, and was glad to have my opinion 

 verified a short time ago by Mr. Richard Kearton, who 

 informed me that he had watched a male Snipe feeding 

 his offspring in this way. In consequence of this habit, 

 I had to feed my young Snipe entirely by hand for the 



