260 scolopacldjE. 



of the solitary snipe in that county, where he had not, however, 

 met with it since 1830 or 1831. Being further questioned, that 

 gentleman replied, in July 1846 : — " The solitary snipe I have 

 at different times shot here is much larger than the common 

 snipe, bill shorter, plumage nearly alike, with the exception of 

 the belly, which in the Common is white, but in the Solitary is 

 speckled with grey and brown. It lies close, and when flushed 

 makes no cry, flies steadily without twisting, and slower than the 

 Common (probably from its fatness, and not being a shy bird), 

 and pitches again, like the jack snipe, after a short flight of thirty 

 or forty yards. I never heard a cry from it; but sportsmen 

 abroad have told me it has one, not, however, resembling that 

 of the common snipe. I believe that every year several come 

 over, though not found by sportsmen who do not know where to 

 look for them ; — not in bogs, but in long-grass fields in marshy 

 neighbourhoods. They, frequent these abroad, and are called 

 meadow-sm'pe (wiesen-scAnepfe) . They breed in the marshes of 

 Hungary, and, being migratory, come to the marshy district 

 between Laibach and Upper Laibach, long before any frost could 

 influence their flight. They remain there not more than a fort- 

 night, and, I know from sportsmen, are soon afterwards found in 

 quantities in the Pontine Marshes. The ' double snipe' of 

 the continent is the same as the bird I have killed in Ireland. 

 In one winter, about fifteen years ago, solitary snipes were plen- 

 tiful in the grassy lands of Hayestown, at the foot of the mountain 

 of Forth, about four miles from Wexford. Every day I shot 

 there I got three or four birds : since that time, the ground has 

 been drained, and ail kinds of snipe have quitted it; but I 

 generally yet get a few elsewhere in the course of the winter's 

 shooting in the county of Wexford." 



Mr. G. Jackson, who has been living in the capacity of game- 

 keeper in different parts of Ireland for nearly thirty years, never 

 met with any but two birds which he considered to be the great 

 snipe. He was then keeper to Lord Cloncurry, at Lyons 

 (co. Kildare). The birds rose together from a field of wheat 

 stubble near the Grand Canal, and not far from the town of Sallins 



