WOODCOCK
Scolopax rusticula
THE COMMON SNIPE
Gallinago cœlestis (Frenzel)
This bird is found wherever swamps, marshes, and damp meadows suitable to its habits are still left, and is a common resident throughout Great Britain, receiving large additions to its numbers from the Continent every autumn.
Very early in April it begins to nest, making a fairly deep “scrape” in a damp spot, generally in some rough grass or other cover, and lining it with a few bents and leaves. The eggs, four in number, as is the case with all wading birds, are greenish olive, spotted and blotched, often spirally, with various shades of brown, and there are also a few black markings near the larger end. The young when first hatched are reddish chestnut, mottled with black and white.
During the breeding season this species may often be seen “drumming” or “bleating.” This is a sound much like the “bleating” of a goat, and considerable doubt as to how it was produced has long existed, although a Swedish naturalist stated many years ago that it was brought about by the rapidly vibrating tail feathers as the bird descended at a certain angle through the air. This has recently been clearly proved as correct by an English observer, Mr. P. Bahr, who points out that the sound is produced by the two outer tail feathers, which during the flight are held out widely separated from the rest of the tail. The sound can be produced artificially by placing these feathers on a cork and rapidly whirling them round with a piece of string. During the breeding season it utters also a loud vocal “chip, chip,” when on the ground, while when suddenly flushed the alarm-note of “scape, scape” is well known. Its flight is very rapid and direct when once on the wing, but on first rising it flies in short zig-zags, offering a very difficult shot. Sometimes, however, it will “squat” on the approach of danger, and even on a bare patch of mud becomes almost invisible, so well do its colours harmonise.
Its method of “squatting” is rather peculiar, for it puts its beak down and its body and tail well in the air and generally pressed up against some growing vegetation. In this position the two light dorsal stripes appear like blades of grass, and all trace of the contour and shape of the bird is lost.
The sexes are alike in plumage. The general colour above is dark brown, with a light buff stripe across the crown and two stripes of a similar colour down the back, which is also mottled with buffish. Cheeks and chin are white, flecked with dark brown; chest and flanks ash brown; rest of under parts white. The young resemble their parents. Length 10·75 in.; bill 2·5 in.; wing 5 in.
There is a dark variety of this bird, known as Sabine’s Snipe, which is occasionally met with, especially in Ireland. It has the whole of the under parts ash brown, barred with black, and the light stripes on the back are absent. Intermediates between the normal and the true Sabines are not uncommon.
THE JACK SNIPE
Gallinago gallinula, Linnæus
Breeding in the north-western corner of Europe, as far east as Archangel, the Jack Snipe is only a winter visitor to this country, arriving towards the end of October and often not leaving our shores till well on in summer, but there is no authenticated case of its ever having bred with us. In habits it closely resembles the Common Snipe, but lies much closer when being “walked up,” and then rising at one’s feet goes off at a great pace. It is a more solitary bird than the Common Snipe, and a single individual may often be found for a whole winter in the same spot.