COMMON SNIPE 
capricious movements, for a snipe cannot stand in more than two inches 
of water, much less obtain a living, when the bogs and marshes are 
all submerged. The snipe is almost entirely a ground -bird, and its 
curious habit, already referred to, of perching on trees and posts 
during the breeding -season, common to many other waders, such as 
the redshanks and sandpipers, is not observed at other times of the 
year. 
As a rule the snipe is a very solitary bird, and though hundreds may 
be met with in the same bog, they usually lead an entirely independent 
existence. Occasionally, however, all the snipe in a district seem to pack, 
and gather in large “wisps” ; at such times they are usually very wild 
and unapproachable, and, rising en masses scatter in all directions. At 
other times, when a number of snipe are found concentrated in some 
favourite spot, they will act in an entirely different manner, rising singly 
or in pairs. The weather-conditions have no doubt much to do with this 
diversity of habit, and influence their actions, as in the case of grouse 
and other wildfowl. Wet and stormy weather will always render them 
wild and unsettled. When frost sets in the birds leave the more open 
feeding -grounds and repair to the margins of streams, or any open water; 
when these become frozen, the majority migrate to more favourable 
districts. 
The seashore and mud -flats have but small attraction for snipe, and 
they are rarely found there, their haunts and feeding-grounds being the 
same both in winter and summer. Mr Wormald, who has had exceptional 
opportunities of observing snipe in captivity, says that they are full of 
play. They often squat down with the tail well up and fully expanded 
and the wings drooped, and then jump from side to side. On bright sunny 
mornings they are sometimes very active, and will romp almost like 
young partridges. The late Duke of Beaufort stated that the snipe, 
when resting, invariably sits on its shanks, with its back to the wind, 
its bill pointing downwards, and pressed close against its breast, and 
that it shelters itself behind its raised and fully expanded fan -like tail. 
This action is so different from what has been observed in other birds, 
that I think the snipe referred to by his Grace must have been at play, 
as described above. As all birds invariably sit facing the wind, I cannot 
believe that snipe normally sit with their backs to it, and no other 
observer, so far as I am aware, has noted this peculiarity. 
When rising, the snipe utters a harsh note, sounding like “ scape,” 
271 
