SOLITARY SNIPE. 47 



their curious cases, are found in their stomachs, and also many 

 grains of sand ; but, contrary to the practice of others of its 

 tribe, this bird is said to cast these cases and other sub- 

 stances in long pellets. Evening is the chief feeding-time of 

 this bird, when it roves about on the muddy grounds by the 

 water's edge. 



The present species does not breed further north than 

 Liefland, and frequently in Hanover and Oldenburg ; whe- 

 ther it has occurred in Britain we have not been able to as- 

 certain, although we see no reason why such should not be the 

 case. 



The locality, before described, in which the Solitary Snipe 

 is found, is also the place where the nest and eggs are to be 

 looked for in the beginning of May ; the male and female 

 may then be found not far apart on the ground, where they 

 lie so close that they may be knocked down, and on taking- 

 wing they very soon settle again close by, alighting on a hillock 

 or grassy knoll, in the midst of the swamp or shallow bog where 

 the young grass is about half a foot high. In preparing her 

 nest, the female presses the grass in the centre somewhat flat, 

 rounds the spot a little, and lines it tolerably well with dry 

 grasses and fragments of herbage ; in it four eggs are depo- 

 sited by the end of the month of May. After seventeen days' 

 incubation, the young birds run about, and are assisted by 

 the parents in procuring their food for about a month, but 

 are very difficult to find in their secure retreats among bogs 

 and uneven ground. 



Not having the egg to figure from, we must remain satis- 

 fied for the present with describing it from an account re- 

 ceived from good authority. 



The length of the egg is twenty-two lines, and its width 

 sixteen ; its shape much resembling that of the black-tailed 

 godwit. Its texture is fine-grained and dull, of a yellow 



