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on passage or in winter ; and Canon Tristram did not meet with it in Palestine ; but it certainly 

 occurs in North-east Africa, as I have a specimen from Alexandria, and it is recorded by 

 Hemprich and Ehrenberg from Nubia. In North-west Africa it is more common than on the 

 eastern side. It is recorded from Algeria by the travellers who have visited that country ; and 

 Mr. Tyrwhitt Drake, in his list of birds observed in Tangier and Eastern Morocco, states that he 

 twice noticed it in March ; but Favier [fide Colonel Irby) only mentions a single specimen as 

 having been obtained by him near Tangier in 1859. 



It is somewhat remarkable that the present species should be common in South Africa, 

 whereas in North-east Africa, at least, it is only rarely met with ; and I can only surmise that as 

 it migrates during the night it thus passes through the northern portion of that continent without 

 being much observed, and wintering in the south it remains longer in the same locality, and is 

 consequently more frequently seen. Mr. Gurney (in Andersson's B. of Damara Land, p. 312) 

 says that " Mr. Andersson's last collection contained a single specimen of this Snipe (a male), 

 obtained in Ondonga on the 6th February, 1867. This species is a regular migrant to Natal, 

 and also occurs, but less numerously, in the Republic of Transvaal ; it arrives in Natal in 

 September or October, and leaves in January or February ;" and the same gentleman states (Ibis, 

 1868, p. 261) that, though not included in Layard's catalogue, it is a regular migrant to Natal, 

 arriving in September and October, and leaving in January or February. Mr. Ayres has also met 

 with it in the Transvaal, where, however, it is less common than in Natal. 



To the eastward the present species occurs as far as Siberia. 



Major St. John says that it is not unfrequently shot in Northern Persia about the beginning 

 and end of the season. He once procured it there, but never saw it in the south. Dr. Severtzoff 

 does not record it from Turkestan ; but Dr. Eadde writes that he met with it several times, early 

 in September 1855, in the Kaja valley, near Irkutsk; on the 30th July, 1856, he met with one 

 near Altansk, on the bauks of the Aguzakan ; and on the 31st he flushed several on the shores of 

 the Dshindagatai lake, where it occurred together with Scolopaoc stenura. On the 20th April, 

 1858, he found it on the banks of the Amoor, in the Bureja Mountains. 



I have had but few opportunities of observing the habits of the present species, my only 

 acquaintance with it being restricted to having seen and shot a few individuals when a student 

 in the vicinity of Upsala, where it was, during the time I was there, by no means uncommon. I 

 am, however, indebted to my friend Mr. Eobert Collett, of Christiania, for the following interesting 

 notes, the result of personal observations made by him during his collecting-trips in various parts 

 of Norway : — " The Double Snipe,'' he writes, " is chiefly a nocturnal bird. Not only does it 

 migrate at night, but it is in motion almost solely after twilight, when its peculiar ' spil ' or 

 drumming takes place ; and it also searches after food chiefly during this time of the evening, 

 remaining quiet and hidden during the daytime, seldom or never taking wing unless flushed, 

 but sitting well hidden amongst the dense grass. On the whole it is an unsociable bird ; and 

 although several pairs may inhabit the same meadow, yet each pair has its own small district, 

 where they appear to take but little notice of their neighbours. They also rise singly ; and it-is 

 one of the most uncommon occurrences if two are killed by the same discharge. It is not a 

 shy bird, and may usually be approached within a few paces distance ; and when it rises it flies 

 but a short distance and drops again. When standing before the dog it does not crouch flat 



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