OF THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 295 



strays to the bare spots in the marshes, to 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 {Scirpiis 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 

 imtil 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 pairing 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 express on paper as that of the Wood- 

 cock. The pairing notes will be described later. The food of the Common 

 Snipe consists of worms, grubs, aquatic insects and their larvae, and small water- 

 snails. Much of this food is obtained whilst the bird probes the soft mud with 

 its extremely sensitive bill, which is full of small thread-like nerves connected 

 with the brain. This complicated nervous plexus renders the bill of the Common 

 Snipe so sensitive that the bird is enabled to feel its prey when buried deep and 

 out of sight in the soft mud. Much difference of opinion has been expressed 

 respecting the best method of shooting Snipe, some sportsmen preferring to work 

 their ground " off the wind " or down wind; whilst others are equally attached to 

 working against the wind. Both methods are to be recommended according to 

 circumstances, but light charges and a gun held straight rarely fail to answer for 

 Snipe, however worked. A hundred couple a day have been known to fall to a 

 single gun in India. 



Nidification. — in the British Islands the breeding season of the Snipe 

 commences towards the end of March, and fresh eggs may be obtained through 

 April and May. In more northern latitudes the eggs, of course, are laid much 

 later. During the pairing season especially, and less frequently even up to the 

 time the young are hatched, the male Snipe spends a good deal of his time in the 

 air. All the old love of skulking in the marshes seems relinquished for the time 

 being, and high in the air the bird careers about, uttering his love notes and 

 making the sound popul arly known as ' ' drumming " or " bleating. ' ' These flights 



