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NOTES ON CERTAIN BREEDING HABITS OF 
THE SNIPE. 
By FREDK. J. STUBBS. 
[Read 30 th October 1915.] 
URING the past few years, I have found the Common Snipe 
I J to be fairly abundant as a breeding species in the eastern 
portion of Essex, and have taken the opportunity of checking 
and extending previous observations on the species, made in 
other parts of Great Britain. The most remarkable contribution 
to our knowledge of the bird and its habits has been described 
already in the Zoologist (1912, p. 196-177), but may perhaps 
be mentioned in these pages. 
On 2nd May 1912, in a large marshy pasture near Passingford 
Bridge, I watched a Snipe amusing itself by shooting along for 
many yards through the air, on outspread wings, back down¬ 
wards. This extraordinary manoeuvre was repeated again and 
again. Subsequently, I observed the same bird going through 
the evolutions of “ drumming,” but taking the usual plunge back 
downwards. In the next number of the Zoologist, confirmation 
came from three naturalists, Messrs. H. Eliot Howard, J. A. 
Harvie-Brown, and Julian S. Huxley, who had, independently, 
observed the same curious habit. 
Since that date, I have observed this reversed plunging of 
a bird high in the air on several occasions, but it has not been my 
fortune to see again clearly the strange upside-down horizontal 
flight. So far as I know, this last-noticed habit had not been 
recorded previously for any bird ; but, from an article on the birds 
of Anglesea ( Zoologist , 1904), two good ornithologists, Messrs. 
T. A. Coward and C. Oldham, appear to have seen the 
proceeding, although they failed to notice whether or not the 
performer was upside down. 
The Snipe is a most difficult bird to observe, but I have no 
doubt that its acrobatic habits are frequently indulged, and are 
well worth patient watching. 
The “ drumming ” of the Snipe is, I suggest, a problem 
that is still unsolved. Although sometimes audible at the 
distance of a mile, and at every hour of day and night in spring, 
and conspicuous in districts where the bird breeds, I have not 
yet questioned anyone who had unaided first observed the 
