304 GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL. 



pair of these birds are flushed in one particular spot during 

 autumn and winter, but on migration and in the pairing season 

 much more gregarious tendencies are developed. 



Nidification. — In the pairing season parties of male birds 

 appear often to collect and go through various strange antics on 

 the ground and in the air. Mr. Seebohm, who has had excep- 

 tional opportunities of observing this species at its nesting 

 grounds, relates how he has often watched them at a distance of 

 from fifteen to twenty yards, whilst concealed among willow 

 bushes, " stretch out their necks, throw back the head almost 

 upside down, and open and shut their beaks rapidly, uttering a 

 curious noise like that produced by running the finger along the 

 edge of a comb." Sometimes these notes were uttered just after 

 the bird had taken a short flight, or spread its wings and tail. As 

 many as six birds were counted in the air together, during this 

 singular tournament, in another locality. The nest of the Great 

 Snipe is either made amongst the long coarse grass which the 

 bird frequents, or in the centre of a tussock of rush or sedge. It 

 is merely a shallow depression lined with dry grass and some- 

 times a little moss. The eggs are four in number, and vary in 

 ground colour from olive and grayish buff to brownish buff, 

 handsomely and heavily spotted and blotched with rich dark 

 brown and pale brown, and with numerous and large underlying 

 markings of violet-brown and gray. Most of the blotches are 

 obliquely distributed, and on some eggs many streaks are to be 

 seen. They are pyriform, and measure on an average i'8 inch 

 in length by i'2 5 inch in breadth. The eggs are laid at the end 

 of May in some locahties, nearly a month later (middle to end of 

 June) in others. Incubation lasts from seventeen to eighteen 

 days. Only one brood is reared in the year. 



Diagnostic Characters. — Scolopax, with the major portion 

 of the four outer rectrices on each side white, and with broad 

 white tips to the median wing coverts. Length, i o^ to 1 1 ^ inches. 



