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he found a nest containing eggs. He saw it late in April on the western slope of the Stanowoi 

 Mountains, and shot one at Udskoj-Ostrog on the 29th August. Both Von Middendorff and 

 Dr. Radde also met with it in the portions of Eastern Siberia visited by them ; and according 

 to Colonel Przevalsky it breeds, though rarely, in the Hoang-ho valley, and probably also in 

 South-eastern Mongolia, where large numbers were seen on passage from about the 10th of 

 April to the middle of May. He only once saw it in Kan-su, in September ; and at Koko-nor 

 the first appeared on migration on the 23rd March, and by the end of that month they were 

 very numerous. This Snipe was not seen by Colonel Przevalsky when crossing the Gobi desert ; 

 but at Lake Hanka it appeared early in April. Pere David says that it is quite as numerous in 

 China as it is in Europe, and is very abundant near Pekin in the spring and autumn ; and both 

 Mr. Whitely and Captain Blakiston obtained it at Hakodadi, Japan. In the winter season the 

 Common Snipe ranges south to the Philippines; and the late Lord Tweeddale writes that Dr. Meyer 

 obtained two examples at Luzon. 



In North America Gallinago coelestis is replaced by a very closely allied species, Galli- 

 nago wilsoni, which differs merely in having the outer rectrices much narrower, and the axil- 

 laries, as a rule, more closely barred with black. 



In habits the Common Snipe is, as a rule, a somewhat shy and wary bird, and especially in 

 stormy, bad weather it is difficult to approach within gunshot range ; but in fine, clear, still 

 weather it appears to be less shy. During the daytime it is but seldom seen, unless flushed 

 from its hiding-place ; but in the early morning and late evening it becomes restless, leaves 

 its retreat, and commences hunting round after food. So far as I can ascertain, it but 

 seldom moves from its resting-place during the day, but feeds almost exclusively in the early 

 morning, at twilight, or during the night. When flushed it rises suddenly, often uttering a 

 short sharp note resembling somewhat the tearing sound caused by drawing the nail sharply 

 over a piece of silk drawn tight, and flies off very swiftly, at first irregularly, and then more in a 

 straight line. It is generally not gregarious, and is flushed singly ; but during the seasons of 

 migration small flocks are sometimes seen, and I have occasionally seen a considerable 

 number collected together in a small swampy patch. It frequents marshy or grassy localities, 

 often on the banks of small streams, and especially places where the soil is soft, where it can 

 easily probe in search of food. Like the Woodcock it evinces a partiality for some particular 

 spot ; and most sportsmen can remember some favourite place where a Snipe may almost in- 

 variably be flushed during the shooting-season. I well recollect a little patch of grass-covered 

 swamp near San Antonio, in Texas, where almost every morning soon after daybreak I was sure 

 to find one or two of the American form, Gallinago wilsoni; and during the season I spent 

 there I killed a considerable number at that place alone. Formerly when so much of the 

 country in Norfolk now under cultivation was undrained, large bags of Snipe used to be made ; 

 and Mr. Stevenson states that about eighteen years ago Captain Rous killed over forty couple 

 to his own gun in one day at Sutton ; and as late as 1859 or 1860, when the birds which arrived 

 in November were met by a severe frost, Lord Leicester killed seventy or eighty couple in one 

 day near Holkham ; but now it is very rare to bag more than from five to ten couple in a day. 



The food of the Common Snipe consists entirely of worms and insects of various kinds, and 

 minute shells ; and though it is said occasionally to swallow vegetable substances, this is probably 



