GREAT SNIPE. 137 



\rhite, and had fewer of the dark markings than in any other Great Snipe we have ever 

 met with. Though called solitary, it seems in countries frequented by it in any numbers, 

 to be generally found in pairs. When flying it is said to spread the tail like a fan. 



It is monogamous. 



Mr. Greiff states that it has a peculiar note at the breeding-season, and "commences 

 with a sound resembling the smack of the tongue, and thereupon four or five louder follow." 



The food of the Great Snipe is said by Sir Humphrey Davy to be the larvte of the 

 Harry, Daddy, or Father Long Legs ; in scientific language, Tipulce. These are very 

 abundant in meadows, and are exceedingly injurious to the roots of the grass on which they 

 subsist: this may in some measure account for these birds frequenting meadows, where 

 their favourite food is so plentiful. 



In Sweden the shooting of the Great Snipe commences in July, and may be pursued 

 till the end of September. 



The nest is very simple, consisting of a little dry grass, or other marshy plants; it 

 is placed in some slight depression in the ground by the side of a tuft of coarse grass 

 or rushes. The eggs are four in number, and are spotted with two shades of red brown 

 upon a yellow olive brown ground. They measure one inch and three-quarters in length 

 by one inch and a sixth in breadth. Incubation is usually completed by the end of 

 May, or early in June. 



In the adult the bill is of a pale yellowish brown with dark brown tip, and is about two 

 inches and a half long. Irides, dark brown; forehead and crown, dark brown, divided 

 in the centre from before backwards by a streak of pale brown, and bounded on each 

 side over the eye and ear coverts by a similar pale streak. From the beak to the eye 

 is a streak of dark brown. Chin, pale yellowish brown; neck, pale brown, each feather 

 with a darker centre. The upper parts are varied, as in the other Snipes, with black 

 and blackish brown, streaked, margined, and tipped with buff and white, but which it 

 is not easy to convey a correct impression of by words. Quills, gray black, with the 

 shafts white; secondaries, black, tipped with white; tertials, black, barred and streaked 

 witli pale brown ; rump feathers, dark brown, with pale edgings ; upper tail coverts, pale 

 wood brown, with darker markings. The tail consists of sixteen feathers; the 

 centre eight black, with a chesnut tip, terminated with a narrow bar of black and white ; 

 the four outer feathers on each side are white, with some black bars on the outer webs; 

 the whole much concealed by the coverts. Breast and sides, pale ochreous, marked with 

 crescentic bands of black ; belly and vent, yellowish white. The legs and toes would seem 

 to vary considerably; Mr. Yarrell having seen them of a livid green and light drab in 

 fresh specimens. 



The female is larger, and darker in her markings, than the male. 



The young birds may be known by the tail being without the white outside feathers, 



