260 
SCOLOPACIDJE. 
of the solitary snipe in that county, where he had not, however, 
met with it since 1830 or 1831. Being further questioned, that 
gentleman replied, in July 1846 The solitary snipe I have 
at different times shot here is much larger than the common 
snipe, hill shorter, plumage nearly alike, with the exception of 
the belly, which in the Common is white, but in the Solitary is 
speckled with grey and brown. It lies close, and when flushed 
makes no cry, flies steadily without twisting, and slower than the 
Common (probably from its fatness, and not being a shy bird), 
and pitches again, like the jack snipe, after a short flight of thirty 
or forty yards. I never heard a cry from it; but sportsmen 
abroad have told me it has one, not, however, resembling that 
of the common snipe. I believe that every year several come 
over, though not found by sportsmen who do not know where to 
look for them ; — not in bogs, but in long-grass fields in marshy 
neighbourhoods. They frequent these abroad, and are called 
meadow-^m^Q (wiesen-scJineg)fe). They breed in the marshes of 
Hungary, and, being migratory, come to the marshy district 
between Laibach and Upper Laibach, long before any frost could 
influence their flight. They remain there not more than a fort- 
night, and, I know from sportsmen, are soon afterwards found in 
quantities in the Pontine Marshes. The Mouble snipe ^ of 
the continent is the same as the bird I have killed in Ireland. 
In one winter, about fifteen years ago, solitary snipes were plen- 
tifuHn the grassy lands of Hayestown, at the foot of the mountain 
of Porth, about four miles from Wexford. Every day I shot 
there I got three or four birds : since that time, the ground has 
been drained, and ail kinds of snipe have quitted it; but I 
generally yet get a few elsewhere in the course of the winters 
shooting in the county of Wexford.^^ 
Mr. G. Jackson, who has been living in the caj)acity of game- 
keeper in different parts of - Ireland for nearly thirty years, never 
met with any but two birds wliich he considered to be the great 
snipe. He was then keeper to Lord Cloncurry, at Lyons 
(co. Kildare). The birds rose together from a field of wheat 
stubble near the Grand Canal, and not far from the town of Sallins 
