THE SNIPE 123 
six yards away. The first time this happened I 
thought the bird must be wounded or unable to fly, 
but it was not, and it is only one more proof of the 
benefit that the Antiquities Department has pro- 
duced by exercising its authority over the areas it 
controls, No shooting is allowed on “ Antiquities 
ground,” and birds very soon get to know this, 
gain confidence, and lose all their natural shyness. 
Needless to say, in those parts where they are shot 
they behave as warily as Snipe do at home, and are 
up and away with their curious “scarpe, scarpe” 
cry. Years ago the Delta was one of the best 
snipe-grounds in the world, and an old sportsman 
in Cairo told me of his getting 93 couples in a day, 
and as late as 1902 a certain five days’ shooting 
gave an average of 72 couple per day. In nearly 
all such bags some Jack Snipe were obtained ; and 
in Mr. M. J. Nicoll’s notes on birds met with at 
Menzaleh the Jack Snipe is given as the commoner 
of the two species. 
There is nothing to show that Snipe ever breed 
in Egypt, though there are many localities where 
it well might, and it is another of the great army 
of winter migrant visitors that go to the north as 
spring comes on. It lives entirely on insects and 
worms, which it procures by probing the soft, black 
