294 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



World representative of the Common Snipe. Tj'pical examples are distinguished 

 from the Common Snipe by having sixteen tail feathers instead of fourteen, by 

 having the axillaries barred with brov^n 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 2'7 inches instead of from 2'5 to 3'0 inches. Inter- 

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

 characteristics of the American Snipe 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 hemisphere. The G. sabinii of Vigors, 

 practically confined to the British Islands, is now universally admitted to be 

 nothing but a melanistic variety of the Common Snipe, with no specific value. 



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

 for its arrival in Siberia. The return journey commences in Europe about the 

 middle of August, and continues for at least two months. In India it is 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 Burmah it does not arrive until 

 December. In our islands the Common Snipe is certainly a solitary bird, but in 

 India Hume distinctly states that it is eminently gregarious, and arrives and 

 departs en 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 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 vegetation amongst which the bird delights to hide. From this cover it 



