THE SNIPE 
Gallinago coelestis 
Top of head, back, and upper feathers of wings dark brown, 
in parts nearly black with a bluish gloss, two buff streaks on 
each side of shoulders; face and chest spotted with dusky 
brown, whilst the flanks are barred with the same colour ; tail 
bright chestnut, barred with black and tipped with white ; 
legs greenish ; bill brown, at base flesh colour; eyes dark 
brown. Length, 11°5 inches. 
TuE Snipe in some parts of Upper Egypt are so 
extraordinarily tame—and hardly behave as Snipe 
do generally—that I have no doubt they are often 
seen by many who never recognise them as Snipe 
at all. At the Sacred Lake at Karnak I have seen 
veritable processions of visitors, headed by a talk- 
ing dragoman, walk along the path quite near one 
which was standing at the water’s edge, and if none 
left the pathway it would remain stolid, but if any 
boy, or workman, came down to bathe or drink, it 
just flew across to the other side and at once settled 
down again. And in the very early morning before 
the workers arrive, I have stood right on the shore, 
not screened or hidden in any way, and had Snipe 
dibbling about in the water not more than five or 
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