574 COMMON SNIPE. 
as far as the Moluccas. A closely-allied species with 16 tail-feathers 
inhabits North America, but our bird has wandered to the Bermudas. 
During the breeding-season both sexes of the Snipe produce, 
while on the wing and especially towards evening, a drumming or 
‘bleating’ sound, which appears to be chiefly due to the action 
of the wings, slightly assisted by the expanded tail-feathers. In 
April, though exceptionally in March, a slight nest in a tuft of grass, 
heather or bunch of rushes, or on the open moor, is prepared ; the eggs 
—usually 4 in number and very large for the size of the bird—are 
yellowish- or greenish-white, blotched somewhat obliquely with several 
shades of brown: measurements 1°6 by r*rin. The alarm-note—scafe, 
scape, and chip, chip—is as well known as is the zig-zag flight of the 
bird on being flushed; when feeding, however, the Snipe may be 
sometimes approached unawares, and will then try to escape notice 
by squatting. Occasionally it perches on trees &c., though the fact 
has been dogmatically denied by persons of limited experience. 
As its food consists of worms, insects and small molluscs, the Snipe 
often becomes very thin during a continuance of frost ; its average 
weight is 4 ozs. 
The tail-feathers are normally 14 in number; length of the bird 
10°75 (bill 2°5), wing 5 in. A detailed description is rendered 
unnecessary by the wood-cut; and space will be more profitably 
devoted to a vignette of the so-called Sabine’s Snipe, which is now 
generally admitted to be merely a dark form, seldom found outside 
the British Islands, wherein more than 60 examples have been 
obtained. ‘The numerous variations in the plumage of the Snipe 
have led to the creation of several bad species. 
