COMMON SNIPE. 
181 
heard except in the downward flight, and when the 
wings are in rapid and quivering motion ; their re- 
sistance to the air, without doubt, causes the noise, 
which forms one of those agreeable variations in a 
country walk, so earnestly watched for by the prac- 
tical ornithologist. 
After incubation, the young may still be found 
near their breeding places, and it is not until the 
weather becomes variable, that they, according to 
circumstances, begin to shift their ground. We 
have often found them abundant in the low and 
sheltered marshes, and the day following sought the 
same ground, scarcely meeting with a bird. The 
same occurs on the upland wet pastures, and they 
come in and remove with the night. Frost has a 
similar effect on their motions, but in very severe 
weather, this drives them to be pretty stationary 
until the next change. They are also sometimes 
found in grounds having a considerable growth of 
scattered willow or alder, where the woodcock would 
rather have been looked for ; and, in a very severe 
winter, we have seen Snipes come to the garden, 
and perch on the cabbages and greens along with 
the wood-pigeon, apparently in search of any mois- 
ture held between the blades. 
From the close resemblance and alliance of some 
apparently distinct species of Snipe to that of Bri- 
tain, the exact geographical range has not been 
ascertained; by some it is made to be extremely 
wide, while by others, again, it is almost restricted 
to Europe. Both are probably wrong, and much of 
