376 VERTEBRATE EAUNA OF LAKELAND 



GREAT SNIPE. 



Gallinago major (Gmel. ). 

 Dr. Gough included the Great Snipe as an occasional but rare 

 visitant to the neighbourhood of Kendal. T. C. Heysham only 

 met with a very few specimens in Cumberland. The late Mr. 

 W. Dickinson, during an extended residence in his native 

 county, only heard of five examples killed in the west of Cum- 

 berland. There can be no doubt that most of the reports and 

 even records of Great Snipe refer simply to heavy examples of 

 the common bird. At all events, I can only answer for five 

 specimens killed in the decade of 1881-1891. The first of 

 these was shot near Carlisle in 1881 ; another was killed on 

 Wardhall Common, September 11, 1883; a third near Carlisle, 

 October 30, 1886; a fourth near Carlisle on September 9, 

 1887 ; a fifth was obtained in the north-east of Cumberland 

 in November 1891. Our records relate chiefly, if not exclu- 

 sively, to birds shot in the months of September and October 

 in the northern part of the Lake district. It is believed that 

 all of them were single birds. 



COMMON SNIPE. 



Gallinago cozlestis (Frenzel). 

 This Snipe has always been a plentiful bird in Lakeland, and 

 still breeds on the wild moors round Ravenstonedale in West- 

 morland, in the Rusland valley, in the marshy lands around 

 our lakes, or, again, on Solway Flow, Rockliffe moss, and Bowness 

 Flow in the neighbourhood of the sea-board. Fewer nests are 

 found no doubt than formerly, but this may be partly accounted 

 for by the large portion of ' snipey ground ' that has been re- 

 claimed even in the dreariest and most remote portions of our 

 area. This bird is closely associated with the reminiscences of 

 most sportsmen. Often has the ' skape ' of the Snipe saluted 

 my ears on the salt marshes when a Snipe has unexpectedly 

 slipped away at our feet from a tussock at the side of a creek, 

 urging us to trace the delicate imprint of its long toes which 

 the soft sand retains. The ' bleating ' of the male, as he shoots 

 through the air with amorous velocity, or prepares to descend 



