324 THE BIEDS OF DEVON. 



The bird we found on Dartmoor was flushed wild, and marked down 

 amonj; some big stones and furze on a dry hill-side, and could not be 

 moved again ; but a few daj-s later we were passing near the spot (this 

 was on i^Oth September), when we started it from a small wet patch, and 

 succeeded in bagging it, although an equinoctial gale was blowing at the 

 time, and the Snipe was caught up and drifted from us like a leaf. The 

 one we found near \\'eston-super-Mare, in Somerset, lay as dead as a 

 Jack Snipe, and neither of the Great Snipes we have mentioned uttered 

 any cry when flushed. 



The examples of the Groat Snipe obtained in this country in the autumn 

 are invariably young birds, so that we feel confident that the " adult " 

 reported as having been shot on Dartmoor on 2ord August, which we 

 include in our list of the occurrences of the bird within the county given 

 below, was a mistake. "\Ve have handled a great many British-killed 

 Great Snipes, and never saw one in the unmistakable adult plumage, and 

 we believe there is only a single instance on i-ecord of one having been 

 secured in this country in the spring in the complete mature dress. 



In November 1840 a Great Snipe was killed on Dartmoor (E. M., Rowe's Peramb. 

 Dartmoor, p. 2.'}1). One on Shaiigb Moor, September 7th, 1850 CR. A. T., ' Naturalist,' 

 1851, p. 142). One at Ashburton, October 7th, 1854. One at Plyraoutb, October 4tb, 

 1850 (B., MS. Notes). Another at the same place, Novemb-r 13tb, 1858 (J. G., Zool. 

 1859, p. 0377). One at Stoke Canon, near Exeter, October Otb, 1808, now in the A.M.M. 

 One on Dartmoor. September 29tb, 1808, and one at Witberidge, North Devon, in 

 the same montli (M. A. M., Zool. 1808, p. 1401). Four at Parracombe, North Devon, 

 in September and October 1808 (G. P. M., Zool. 1808, pp. 1400, 1404). One at 

 Morley, September 10th, 1871 ('Field' for September 30tb, 1871). An adult on 

 Dartmoor. August 23rd, 1870; one weighing 75^oz., killed on Dartmoor, in October 

 1880 f.T. G., Zool. 1S70, p. 5120 ; 1887, p. 377). Several others have occurred. One 

 was killed on Lundy Island. 



There is no instance of the nest of the Great Snipe having been found 

 anywhere in the United Kingdom, In the ' Ibis' for 18G1, p. 88, are 

 some very interesting notes respecting the breeding of this species at 

 Bodo, in Norway, by the Messrs. Godman, who, iu May 18.57, found ten 

 or fifteen pairs of the Great Snipe nesting together in a marsh near that 

 place, the Inrds apparently being sociable at the breeding-season. The 

 sitting bird conceals lier eggs, and sometimes herself, with moss, which 

 slie ])lacks off the ground around the nest and draws over her back with 

 her beak. 



The Great Snipe has occurred several times both in Cornwall and 

 Dorset during the autumn. The weight of the bird is given as from 

 7 to 8 oz. 



Common Snipe. GaUinago ccelestis (Frenzel). 



[Full Snipe, Whole Snipe, Heather-bleatcr.] 



"Resident locally, breeding in -small numbers on Dartmoor and its 

 neighbouring commons ; in some places on the south-west coast ; on all 

 the moors and in many marshy meadows in North Devon ; also on 



