110 Notes on Rare Birds, by Valentine Knight. 



solitary Snipes — two of which were scarcely fledged — were shot on 

 Fishburn Carr, between Castle Eden and Darlington ; I cannot 

 find that this has been questioned, neither can I find that it has 

 been alluded to by other authors. Henry Stevenson, however, 

 in his "Birds of Norfolk," mentions a supposed instance of the 

 Great Snipe breeding in Norfolk, the nest and four eggs being 

 found by Mr Hansell, of Thorpe, near Norwich. Three of the 

 eggs were accidentally broken, and the fourth was presented to 

 the Norwich Museum ; and Mr Alfred Newton — to whom it was 

 forwarded for comparison — remarks, " I can nearly match it as 

 to colour, and entirely as to size, by Common Snipe's eggs in my 

 collection;" — and "I can scarcely doubt its being a Common 

 Snipe's." As to date, Mr Stevenson says, "from my notes for 

 the last twenty years, I find the 17th of August the earliest date 

 of its occurrence in Norfolk." The 20th of July, I confess, 

 rather staggered me, but 1876 was a most extraordinary year for 

 weather in most parts of the world, and we know how birds are 

 constantly influenced in their migratory movements by extra- 

 ordinary and unseasonable weather. 



I found this bird first on a very dry meadow, amongst some 

 long grass and thistles, and almost trod upon it ; its flight was 

 straight and low — never rising above a couple of feet or so from 

 the ground — and heavier than that of the Common Snipe ; it 

 uttered no note whatever, and dropped again within twenty-five 

 yards on the same meadow. I went at once to the spot, and it 

 lay till I was within four yards or so ; rose silently again, its 

 flight, &c, being precisely similar, but this time it pitched again 

 further off, about one hundred yards from me. The third time 

 it again lay very close, but it had become wilder, and flew nearly 

 out of sight, and it did not even in this longer flight rise in the 

 air like the common species. It will, therefore, be seen that on 

 all three occasions that I flushed this bird, it presented all the 

 characteristic features of the Great Snipe, its silence excepted, if 

 I may call it excepted, when authors are divided on that point. 

 Stevenson says, " by some authors the bird is described as utter- 

 ing no sound on rising, but Selby remarks that, when flushed, it 

 generally utters a cry in some degree similar to that of the com- 

 mon species, but shorter and hoarser." 



White-fronted Goose [Anser albifrons). — Through the 

 courtesy and kind permission of Mr Wright, of Beal, I was 



