8 
SNIPE. 
Hiid under date of January 1st, 1872, when two birds bagged on the Holmes Marshes in the east of 
Norfolk turned the scale at 12^ oz. : when tested in the scales one against the other there was not the 
weight of a feather between them. Snipe at the time were exceedingly scarce in the district; I learn 
by my notes that not a bird had been seen for over a month. In November 1880, a Snipe shot near Lancino-, 
in Sussex, is recorded as o| oz. ; there are also several entries of this weight during former years. In the early 
part of the season Snipe are often scurfy and in poor condition, the young are also not unfrequently 
light. In a list of birds bagged between the 15th and 30th of September, 1879, in the east of Norfolk, 
the weights vary from 3 to 5 oz. If the weights of Snipes were regularly taken by sportsmen at the 
commencement of a frost, I believe the average of the birds would he found much heavier than is usually 
allowed. While passing through the market of a town on the east coast during the severe weather in 
November 1879, I was requested by a game-dealer to inspect his stall, which contained a pile of from 
three to four hundred Snipe. The salesman then pointed out a smaller heap, all of which he declared 
would go three to the pound. I tried a few birds in the scales and found his assertion perfectly correct • 
there were at least thirty Snipe of this weight. 
Though statements to the effect that this species occasionally alights on trees have appeared in print, 
I never met with a chance of recording a single instance of the fact. During spring in the Norfolk 
marshes I have repeatedly seen Snipe quietly resting on the notice-boards that warn trespassers to beware 
paying little or no attention to boats quanting past at the distance of thirty or forty yards. On more* 
than one occasion in May 1883 a bird was watched settling for a few minutes on the thatched roof of 
a boat-house ; several instances have also come under my observation, about the broads and river-sides 
of the eastern counties, where the stakes employed to dry the eel-nets, and even the empty fish-trunks 
veie lesoited to. When shooting during the summer of 18G0 in the marshes near Eye, I often noticed 
a nipe perched on a post-and-rail fence running across a gravel-pit that contained large pools of shallow 
vatei as ■uell as rank vegetation. 
^ The scares or springes formerly set for Snipe hare been so frequently alluded to, that no description 
.3 necessary Twenty years ago I repeatedly saw large baskets of birds taken by hese means s 
o market from Eomney Marsh in Kent; this method of capture, however, I beLvo is now but 1 tZ 
f lowed. In levensey Level Ducks and Teal as well as Snipe were often taken by means of small steel 
tiaps placed in the open grips and shades frequented by the birds. 
Unfortunately for the interests of sport. Snipes are e.xposed to much unlawful persecution every 
. .y vagabond who can command an old musket waging at the time of frost and snow a war^^of extermination 
. ,ainst the luckless birds, utterly regardless of license for either gun or game. The numbers killed by 
thgh -shooters, profession.al punt-gunners, and loafers would appear incredible to those wim b ^ 
e osely watched the pi^ceedings of those worthies. In the south of Scotland I well remembe tha 7sniTl 
l:77^co:^rd:;.^rl!:d^^^^^^^^ regu.:;‘'rrar: 
injunctions to discharge his piece whenever thrfllh ^f ^ 
feathered creatures that dropped at two or three springs on the outskirtsTf the"li T’"'"' T!‘° 
of shot, he waited patiently concealed in the long grass ^rthrwl i, ““t “ ‘’'‘“''S'' 
by the water.side, when a successful shot was made. I shall not r n 7 * ““'‘“o'™ “‘tied 
which the urchin produced his first prize fwliipl l i i ■ ^ orget the grin of delight with 
neb”)foridentifieatLn. ‘’“-'"“''I ““ •'“astie wi’ a lang 
fact u'a7snTprrrre7n1ly‘ren7'es7 “““'“““"y ''“re evidence to the 
y p.esent m numbers, scarcely a bird would be flushed during a lon<r 
