COMMON SNIPE. 
353 
GRALLATORES. 
SCOLOPACIDjE. 
COMMON SNIPE. 
SCOLOPAX GALLINAGO. 
PLATE XCVIII. 
The Snipe breeds in most parts of this country, becom¬ 
ing more common as we proceed towards the north. In 
Orkney Mr. Salmon “found them in abundance in every 
island where there was the least moisture.” In Shetland 
they are much less numerous. They are generally to be 
met with in low marshy grounds, and we should not expect 
to find them elsewhere ; it is, however, very difficult, in 
describing the usual breeding-place of any species of bird, 
to say that it shall be met with in, and limited to, any par¬ 
ticular species of soil. Upon Foula, the most westerly of 
the Shetland Islands, I was very much surprised at find¬ 
ing several nests of the common Snipe amongst the heather 
which covered the dry steep side of a mountain, and all 
in situations several hundred feet above the marshy plain. 
The Snipe lays its eggs amongst rushes, grass, or heather, 
making—and this only at times—a slight nest for their 
reception, by gathering together a few bits of heath and 
dry grass. The eggs of one bird are, I believe, invariably 
four in number; Mr. Low, however, in his “Fauna Orca- 
densis,” mentions particularly his having “several times 
found six eggs” in the same nest. This is only to be ac¬ 
counted for by supposing that two birds have laid their 
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