89 
during the Spring and Summer of 1857. 
one of the many boys who wandered about the marsh tending 
cattle; but on our beginning to express our fears, the bird, 
doubtless frightened by our voices, flew up, leaving a hole in the 
moss through which we could see there were still only two eggs 
as before. Not doubting, however, that the bird would yet lay 
more, we again left it, and returned in a couple of days. On 
approaching the spot, we observed the nest was again covered 
with moss. This time we remained for a minute before the bird 
flew off, and on stooping down to examine it more closely, we 
could distinctly see the bird’s back through the moss. Not 
liking this close inspection, it flew up, and we took the eggs, 
which proved to be only within a day or two of hatching. The 
bird had evidently, after it was comfortably seated on its nest, 
torn up, with its long beak, the moss within its reach, and 
drawn it over its back till it was completely covered in the way 
described : there was not the least appearance of any hole through 
which the bird could have crept into its nest. This circum¬ 
stance of the nest being covered is the more curious, as out of 
six we found, it was the only one thus carefully concealed. 
There were probably as many as ten or fifteen pairs of these birds 
in the marsh, which usually kept pretty close together, and were 
generally to be found in one particular spot. Could this have 
been a congregation of male birds, the mates of which were 
breeding in the vicinity ? 
Mr. Wolley obtained a nest with four eggs from this locality 
the same year, but unfortunately the eggs were much broken. 
We saw the bird occasionally on swamps in the mountains, 
but it would have been a hopeless task to have searched for its 
nest there, though we have little doubt it breeds in other 
localities in the neighbourhood. 
The down of a young bird of Scolopax major which we prepared 
and brought home is not nearly so dark as that of S. gallinago. 
59. The Common Snipe. Scolopax gallinago. 
During a heavy snow-storm on May 5th, my attention was 
attracted by a note sounding like “ ekke” repeated several times, 
and evidently proceeding from a bird on the ground. On shoot¬ 
ing it, I found it to be a Common Snipe. I frequently heard 
