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COMMON SNIPE. 



WHOLE SNIPE. FULL SNIPE. HEATHER-BLEATER. 



Scolopax gallinago, .... Linn^us. 



JBecassine ordinaire, ..... Temmince. 



Scolopax. Shlops—A stake sharpened at one end, from the form of its bill. Gallinago — ? 



The Common Snipe is well known to every sportsman, being very generally distributed 

 over the whole country, and in some districts, where haunts suited to its wants and habits 

 are found, it exists in great numbers. Although a very considerable body, greater perhaps 

 than is generally supposed, remains with us throughout the year, breeding in our marshy 

 heaths in the spring, yet there is no doubt that a very large accession to their numbers 

 is received during the autumn months ; and again in the spring the great body disappears 

 for more suitable localities for incubation than this country commonly affords. 



Out of this country its geographical range appears not to be exactly defined. This is 

 owing to the very great similarity which exists between different species of these birds. 

 It is however said to frequent the whole of the north of Europe — Norway, Sweden, Lapland, 

 and Eussia; and in Asia — Siberia, Smyrna, and Sumatra. We give these localities, but 

 it is quite probable that they may be either added to or curtailed, when the subject comes 

 to be more minutely investigated. 



As an article of food, it is so well known and esteemed that it is hardly necessary 

 to remark upon it. It is dressed on a toast with the trail left in. 



The haunts chiefly selected by the Common Snipe, are the margins of marshy places, 

 moist meadows, peaty bogs, and commons; the edges of small tiny rivulets; little open 

 ditches in fields ; and very often ploughed lands. Severe frost will however frequently drive 

 it to places where we should hardly expect to find it; thus we remember on one occasion 

 springing a Snipe on the sea-shore, not in a muddy, soft place, but on the small shingle, 

 at the edge of the water ; apparently seeking its food as the Dunlin and Ring Dotterel 

 do. When you spring a Snipe, it manifests the greatest reluctance to fly with the wind, 

 and in fact never does so more than a few yards, when it turns, and after several 'tacks, 

 or zigzag movements of great rapidity, it goes off in the teeth of the wind. The Snipe 



