OF THE BRITISH ISLANDS. 307 



are almost invariably put up a yard or so apart; and this is 

 Hume's experience in India, where it should be remarked the 

 Common Snipe is probably more abundant in winter than in any 

 other known locality. The Snipe is nocturnal in many of its 

 habits ; it migrates at night ; becomes most active at dusk, and 

 obtains the greater part of its food between sunset and sunrise. 

 In its skulking habits it does not differ from its congeners. No 

 birds are more retiring, or more persistently hide themselves away, 

 and unless flushed they are rarely seen on the wing except in the 

 breeding season. The usual haunt of the Snipe is never far away 

 from marshy ground, either in a swamp or a bog, but never on 

 the mud-flats or bare sands. Cover is imperative ; rough herbage 

 such as sedges, rushes, and coarse grass, being the usual vegeta- 

 tion amongst which the bird delights to hide. From this cover 

 it strays to the bare spots in the marshes, the banks of the 

 sluggish streams, and the margins of the pools where the ground 

 is soft, to feed. Hume states that in India during winter, the 

 Common Snipe may be found in every swamp and marsh, on the 

 banks of .rivers, ponds, and lakes, wherever the foreshore is mud, 

 protected by short grass, rushes, or reeds. Here their favourite 

 vegetation, and amongst which they are sure to be found if in the 

 locality at all, is the round-stemmed rush {Scirpus carinatus). 

 Snipe never rest much in swamps covered with water ; they may 

 and do feed in such localities, but rarely or never squat in them ; 

 they invariably skulk in a comparatively dry spot where their 

 under plumage is free from contact with water. Hume remarks 

 that many Snipe often rest at midday on large floating masses of 

 water-weed, the birds keeping close until the boat pushes against 

 the patch of vegetation, which may be as much as half a mile from 

 land. The flight of the Common Snipe, just after the bird rises, 

 is very rapid and uncertain, full of sudden unexpected twists and 

 turns which baffle the best of shots, but it soon becomes steadier, 

 and is rarely far prolonged. The Common Snipe occasionally 

 perches in a tree, and has been known to utter its peculiar pair- 

 ing notes whilst sitting on the topmost spike of a bare larch 

 seventy feet from the ground. The Common Snipe, except 

 during the breeding season, is a very silent bird, but sometimes 

 as it rises it utters a long-drawn guttural note as impossible to 



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