3o6 THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL 



sentative. Typical examples are distinguished from the Common 

 Snipe by having sixteen tail feathers instead of fourteen, by having 

 the axillaries barred with brown instead of pure white, and the 

 breast marked with transverse bars instead of longitudinal streaks. 

 The outer tail feathers are crossed by five dark bars instead of 

 three, and the bill is appreciably shorter, varying from 2 '3 to 

 27 inches instead of from 2'5 to 3'o inches. Intermediate forms 

 are said to be common in India, and birds possessing some of the 

 characteristics of the American form are often met with in England 

 and elsewhere, but hitherto no Snipe combining all the characters 

 of the New World race has been detected in the Eastern hemi- 

 sphere. The 6'. sabinii of Vigors, rarely met with outside the 

 British Islands, is now universally admitted to be nothing but a 

 melanistic variety of the Common Snipe, with no specific value. 



Time during which the Common Snipe may be 

 taken. — August ist to March ist (to March 15th in Essex). 



Habits. — Like many other birds that may be found in the 

 British Islands throughout the year, the Common Snipe is 

 migratory elsewhere, even in such countries as Denmark and 

 Germany. It is, however, an early migrant, reaching its summer 

 quarters in Central Europe by the middle or towards the end of 

 March. Finland is reached by the end of April; Lapland not 

 until the end of May ; whilst further north and east it is at least 

 a week later still. Hume states that in India this species leaves 

 the plains towards the end of March, but in the north they linger 

 a month or six weeks longer, which is a fair corresponding date 

 with that of their arrival in Siberia. The return journey com- 

 mences in Europe about the middle of August, and continues for 

 at least two months. In India they are later, the earliest arriving 

 at the end of August, but the greater number in September, and 

 in the south in October. Gates states that in Burma they do not 

 arrive until December. In our islands the Common Snipe is cer- 

 tainly a solitary bird, but in India Hume distinctly states that it is 

 eminently gregarious, and arrives and departs "«« masse" By this, 

 however, he does not appear to infer that the birds when flushed 

 rise in flocks, although three or four will rise from the same spot 

 where they had evidently been feeding in company. In our 

 islands no matter how thick Snipe may be on the ground, they 



