56 
COMMON SNIPE. 
the female lays four eggs, of a dirty olive colour, 
marked with dusky spots. The young are able to 
run almost immediately after they are freed from 
the shell, but the old birds attend them till their 
beaks become of a sufficient firmness to enable them 
to provide for themselves. During the breeding season 
Snipes play over the moors, piping and humming in 
a most pleasing manner : and the male bird, whilst 
its mate sits upon her eggs, often poises himself on his 
wings, making sometimes a whistling and sometimes 
a humming noise. 
These birds feed on small worms, on slugs, and 
the larva; of insects, in search of which they are con- 
stantly digging and nibbling with their beaks in the 
soft mud. In severe frosts the inclemency of the wea- 
ther compels them to resort to sheltered springs, 
unfrozen boggy places, or an open streamlet of water : 
here they are oftentimes found in large flights, and 
so subdued by cold or hunger, that they will sit till 
nearly trodden upon before they will take flight : 
but, at all times, when roused by the approach of 
the sportsman or his dogs, they utter a feeble whistle, 
and generally fly off against the wind, turning nimbly, 
in a zigzag direction, for a considerable distance, and 
sometimes soaring almost beyond the reach of vision. 
They are greatly esteemed for the table, and in 
flavour greatly resemble the woodcock, but are more 
delicate, but like it they are cooked without extract- 
ing their entrails, and though generally very fat, they 
seldom cloy even the weakest stomach. 
Snipes are very greatly diffused over the continents 
of Europe aiid Asia: they also occur in Africa, being 
