2I3 
alle.n’s naturalist’s library. 
ally gregarious, they get up within a certain distance from each 
other, and their note of “ scape ” may be heard from several in 
the air at once. I'hat they do associate together is certain, how- 
ever, for I remember my friend, the late Mr. Frederick Bond, 
telling me how, many years ago, in the days of muzzle-loaders and 
percussion caps, he was wending his way home by moonlight 
across the Cambridgeshire Fens, and looking out for an oppor- 
tunity cf discharging one of his still loaded barrels. Crossing 
over a little bridge which spanned a ditch, he saw, by the light of 
the moon, a Snipe standing on the edge, and fired at it, only too 
delighted to have found something at which to let off his gun. 
On walking to the spot he picked up eleven Snipe. The late 
Mr. Booth also relates how, when he was punt-gunning on a 
river one winter in the north of Scotland during a severe frost, 
he noticed that Snipe were collected in numbers along the banks, 
where the mud was kept soft by the action of the tide. As a 
novel proceeding, he fired one shot at them with the big gun, 
but the poor birds were so tame that it could hardly be con- 
sidered sport, and fowl being plentiful on the water at the time, 
he left them alone in hopes of renewing their acquaintance on 
some future day. He discovered, however, when the weather 
changed, that he had lost his chance, as, after the breaking-up of 
the frost, not a Snipe could be found within a mile of the spot. 
The Snipe is always a bird of the swamps both in summer and 
winter, and is a skulking bird. It feeds largely on worms, 
slugs, and insects. Its flight is very swift, and when it rises from 
its concealment it twists and turns in a zig-zag flight until it has 
got well out of danger. It utters a harsh note when it rises. 
With regard to the drumming of the Snipe, various surmises 
as to the way in which the noise is produced have been 
hazarded, and Mr. Seebohm has given an excellent note on the 
subject : — “ In the breeding-season the note of the Snipe is 
rapidly uttered, tyik-tyuk, each syllable accompanied by a 
depression of the head. This note is common to both sexes ; 
but perhaps the most interesting fact connected with the 
history of the Snipe is the tvell-known drumming of the male 
bird during the pairing-season. He may then be seen in broad 
daylight high in air, wheeling round and round in enormous 
circles, flying diagonally upwards with rapid beats of the wings, 
then swooping dowm an imaginary inclined plane with half. 
