Chapter VIII: Part 8

The snipe is one of the most generally distributed birds belonging to Europe. It feeds upon almost every kind of worm, or larvæ, and, as I have said before, its stomach sometimes contains seeds and rice; it prefers a country cold in the summer to breed in; but wherever there is much fluid water, and great morasses, this bird is almost certain to be found. Its nest is very inartificial, its eggs large, and the young ones soon become of an enormous size, being, often before they can fly, larger than their parents. Two young ones are usually the number in a nest, but I have seen three. The old birds are exceedingly attached to their offspring, and if any one approach near the nest they make a loud and drumming noise above the head, as if to divert the attention of the intruder. A few snipes always breed in the marshes of England and Scotland, but a far greater number retire for this purpose to the Hebrides and the Orkneys. In the heather surrounding a small lake in the Island of Hoy, in the Orkneys, I found in the month of August, in 1817, the nests of ten or twelve couple of snipes. I was grouse-shooting, and my dog continually pointed them, and, as there were sometimes three young ones and two old ones in the nest, the scent was very powerful. From accident of the season these snipes were very late in being hatched, for they usually fly before the middle of July; but this year, even as late as the 15th of August, there were many young snipes that had not yet their wing feathers. Snipes are usually fattest in frosty weather, which, I believe, is owing to this, that in such weather they haunt only warm springs, where worms are abundant, and they do not willingly quit these places, so that they have plenty of nourishment and rest, both circumstances favourable to fat. In wet, open weather they are often obliged to make long flights, and their food is more distributed. The jack-snipe feeds upon smaller insects than the snipe: small white larvæ, such as are found in black bogs, are its favourite food, but I have generally found seeds in its stomach, once hemp-seeds, and always gravel. I know not where the jack-snipe breeds, but I suspect far north. I never saw their nest or young ones in Germany, France, Hungary, Illyria, or the British Islands. The common snipe breeds in great quantities in the extensive marshes of Hungary and Illyria; but I do not think the jack-snipe breeds there, for, even in July and August, with the first very dry weather, many snipes, with ducks and teal, come into the marshes in the south of Illyria, but the jack-snipe is always later in its passage, later even than the double-snipe, or the woodcock. In 1828, in the drains about Laybach, in Illyria, common snipes were seen in the middle of July. The first double snipes appeared the first week in September, when likewise woodcocks were seen; the first jack-snipe did not appear till three weeks later than the 29th of September. I was informed at Copenhagen, that the jack-snipe certainly breeds in Zealand, and I saw a nest with its eggs, said to be from the island of Sandholm, opposite Copenhagen, and I have no doubt that this bird and the double-snipe sometimes make their nests in the marshes of Holstein and Hanover. An excellent sportsman and good observer informs me, that, in the great royal decoy, or marsh-preserve, near Hanover, he has had ocular proofs of double-snipes being raised from the nest there; but these birds require solitude and perfect quiet, and, as their food is peculiar, they demand a great extent of marshy meadow. Their stomach is the thinnest amongst birds of the scolopax tribe, and, as I have said before, their food seems to be entirely the larvæ of the tibulæ, or _congenerous_ flies.

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Footnote 1:

From Don Juan, Canto XII. Stanza CVI.

“And Angling, too, that solitary vice,
Whatever Isaac Walton sings or says:
The quaint old cruel coxcomb in his gullet
Should have a hook and a small trout to pull it.”

Footnote 2:

The Friend, page 303, by S. T. Coleridge.

Footnote 3:

I have known a person who fished with him at Merton, in the Wandle. I
hope this circumstance will be mentioned in the next edition of that
most exquisite and touching Life of our Hero, by the Laureate, an
immortal monument raised by Genius to Valour.

Footnote 4:

I have known the number of spines in the pectoral fins different, in
different varieties of trout; I have seen them 12, 13, and 14: but the
anal fin always, I believe, contains 11 spines, the dorsal 12 or 13,
the ventral 9, and the caudal 21. The smallest brook trout, when well
and copiously fed, will increase in stews to four or five pounds in
weight, but never attains the size or characters of lake trout.

Mr. Tonkin of Polgaron put some small river trout, 2½ inches in
length, into a newly-made pond. He took some of these out the second
year, and they were above 12 inches in length; the third year, he took
one out that was 16 inches; and the fourth year, one of 25 inches:
this was in 1734. (_Carew’s Survey of Cornwall_, p. 87. Lord de
Dunstanville’s edition.)

Footnote 5:

From the food, and the remains of food, found in the stomach of the
double snipe, I think I have ascertained, that it requires a kind of
worm, which is not found in winter even in the temperate climes of
Europe; and that it feeds differently from the snipe. There are
certainly none found after the end of October in either Illyria or
Italy; and I believe the same may be said of the end of May, as to
their summer migration, or their breeding migration. I have opened the
stomachs of at least a dozen of these birds, and their contents were
always of the same kind, long slender white hexapode larvæ, or their
skins, of different sizes, from that of the maggot of the horse-fly to
one thrice as long. I believe all these insects were the larvæ of
tibulæ of different species. In the stomach of the common snipe, which
is stronger and larger, I have generally found earth-worms, and often
seeds, and rice, and gravel. I conjecture, that, in the temperate
climates of Europe, most of the aquatic larvæ on which the solitary
snipe feeds are converted into flies in the late spring and autumn,
which probably limits the period of their migration. In 1827 the
solitary snipe passed through Italy and Illyria between the 15th of
March and the 6th of May. I heard of the first at Ravenna the 17th of
March, and I shot two near Laybach on the 5th of May; but though I was
continually searching for them for a fortnight after, I found no more.
This year they returned from the north early; and I saw some in the
marshes of Illyria on the 19th of August. In 1828 they were later in
their vernal passage, and likewise in their return. I found them in
Illyria through May, as late as the 17th, on which day I shot three,
and they did not re-appear till the beginning of September. I found
one on the 3d, and three on the 4th, and twenty were shot on the 7th.

As this bird is rarely seen in England, I shall mention its
peculiarities. It is more than one-third larger than the common snipe,
and has a breast spotted with gray feathers. Its beak is shorter than
that of the snipe; the old ones have feathers almost pure white in
their tails, and as they spread them when rising, they are easily
distinguished by this character from the snipe; but in the young birds
that I have seen in August, this character was wanting. They are
usually very fat, particularly the young birds; their weight varies
from six to nine ounces; but even the fattest ones are rarely above
seven ounces and a half; and though I have killed more than a hundred,
I can speak of half-a-dozen only that weighed above eight ounces and a
half. In spring they are usually found in pairs, the female being
rather larger, and having a paler breast: in autumn they are solitary.
They prefer wet meadows to bogs, or large, deep marshes. They usually
lie closer than snipes, and seldom fly far. Their flight is straight,
like that of a jack snipe, and they are easily shot.

Attention to the migrations of birds might, I have no doubt, lead to
important indications respecting the character and changes of the
weather and the seasons. The late migration of the solitary snipe this
year (1828) seems to have been an indication of a wet and backward
summer in the north of Europe. But to form opinions upon facts of this
kind requires much knowledge and caution. The perfection of the larvæ
of the tibulæ on which this snipe feeds depends upon a number of
circumstances: the temperature of the last year; the period when the
eggs were laid; the heat of the water when they were deposited, and
the quantity of rain since. The migration of the solitary snipe is
only one link in a great chain of causes and effects, all connected,
and extending from Africa to Siberia.

Footnote 6:

_Lax_ is the Teutonic word for salmon.

Footnote 7:

I may mention one remarkable instance as an exception, which has
recently occurred to me, the 21st of May, 1828. I was fishing in the
Save, between Wochain and Veldes, in some deep, clear, bright, green
pools. I caught five or six grayling between 15 and 17 inches long,
that had all leeches near the tail; they were beautifully coloured,
and had probably got these parasitic animals after their spawning,
when they reposed. Of course this was the time when they were in their
worst season, as they were just beginning to recover from the work of
generation. At this time they often rose at and refused the fly, but
there were as yet no large flies on the water. The leech was a small
greenish dark worm, about an inch or an inch and a half long, like a
common leech in form and colour.

Footnote 8:

Sälmling of the Germans.

Footnote 9:

Benjamin West.

Transcriber’s Notes

Some presumed printer’s errors have been corrected, including normalizing punctuation and capitalization. Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation has been left as printed unless specifically noted below. In the original book, some fractions were printed in the form 1 1-2 and others in the form 1½. These have all been normalized to the form 1½. An incorrect page number in the Table of Contents has been changed. Further corrections are listed below.

p. x hy -> by
p. 33 he May-fly -> the May-fly
p. 35 this river it -> this river is
p. 43 knats -> gnats
p. 62 autumual -> autumnal
p. 63 antumn -> autumn
p. 63 tepemrature -> temperature
p. 65 Wandel -> Wandle
p. 80 as it mere -> as it were
p. 135 lttle -> little
p. 137 thar -> that
p. 147 Kilmornack -> Kilmarnock
p. 150 youself -> yourself
p. 161 Phyicus -> Physicus
p. 162 orign -> origin
p. 168 eggs cannot produced -> eggs cannot produce
p. 173 I thing -> I think
p. 185 porends -> portends
p. 187 sea-guls -> sea-gulls
p. 192 comfort’s -> comforts
p. 193 seemes -> seems
p. 196 graying -> grayling
p. 197 Noric -> Nordic
p. 218 abtruse -> abstruse
p. 226 the all of water -> the fall of water
p. 231 accquainted -> acquainted
p. 231 were the eggs are hatched -> where the eggs are hatched
p. 232 purpose of of -> purpose of
p. 253 pursue their pray -> pursue their prey
p. 253 Kliengraben -> Kleingraben
p. 258 carniverous -> carnivorous
p. 260 Daunbe -> Danube
p. 262 pply -> apply
p. 267 immagined -> imagined
p. 272 flyfishing -> fly-fishing
p. 279 coarest -> coarsest
p. 286 vermillion -> vermilion
p. 293 morse -> moose
p. 303 picturesqe -> picturesque
p. 307 consitutional -> constitutional
p. 310 wood cocks -> woodcocks