for some distance before taking wing, and is usually 

 very tame, rising with apparent reluctance and offering 

 the easiest of shots. If not shot at, the Great Snipe 

 generally flies low for a short distance, rises for a few 

 yards into the air, and pitches straight down to the 

 ground. I never saw one of these birds mount to any 

 considerable height in the air or indulge in the erratic 

 flight so frequent with the Common Snipe. On rising, 

 this bird almost always spreads out its tail, and in 

 spring often utters a low croak. In my experience it 

 was exceptional to find one of these birds without 

 another in its immediate neighbourhood, and I have 

 occasionally flushed two simultaneously. The heaviest 

 Great Snipe that I ever saw weighed a fraction over 

 8f oz. ; the lightest that I ever heard of was shot in 

 Cyprus by Dr. H. H. Guillemard in 1888, and only 

 reached 5f oz. The flesh of the Great Snipe, even 

 during the vernal migration, is, in my opinion, much 

 superior to that of Common Snipe or Woodcock during 

 their legitimate season. I was assured by an officer of 

 the Russian army that bags of from fifty to eighty 

 Great Snipes are frequently obtained by one or two 

 guns in a day in September within easy reach of 

 St. Petersburg ; and another friend has informed me 

 that in May large numbers of these " Koyal Snipes " 

 are to be found in the marshes of the Gulf of Salerno. 



