BIRDS 211. Great Snipe. Gallinago major (J. F. Gmelin) The solitary snipe, as this bird is often called, is an autumnal visitant usually appear- ing in August and September, but never remaining through the winter and very rarely occurring in spring. Mr. Bunn of Lowestoft has more than once picked up a specimen in the game shops there, and dozens have doubtless been shot and eaten. Mr. Hele once shot in the dusk at something running on the ground in the marshes just south of Aldeburgh and picked up a great snipe. 212. Common Snipe. Gallinago cailestis (Frenzel) A resident which sometimes has eggs in March. Many of the early nests are de- stroyed when the meadows are rolled, but the hen soon lays again, and the same bird has been known to lay three full clutches of four eggs in a season. The fresh eggs are often very handsomely marked but vary a good deal both in size and colour. A clutch of iive was found at Tostock on 28 May, 1892, from which the bird was flushed, and a sitting snipe will sometimes almost allow herself to be trodden on. The birds which breed as they do in suitable places all over the county return to the same haunts with great regu- larity, and their arrival is soon announced by the ' drumming ' of the cock, which is some- times heard quite late in the evening when the Easter moon is at the full. Many come as winter migrants, and one at least has been k^illed by striking the Orford lighthouse. 213. Jack Snipe. Gallinago gallinula (Linn.) This is the smallest and by far the hand- somest of the British snipe and is a winter migrant arriving in September and leaving in March or April. Its nest has never been found in the British Islands. 214. Broad-billed Sandpiper. Limicola platy- rhyncha (Temminck) A very rare visitant from north-eastern Europe which has been obtained on Breydon three times in spring and once in autumn. 215. Pectoral Sandpiper. Vieillot. Tringa maculata. This rare visitant from the other side of the Atlantic has been shot four times near Aldeburgh and always in the autumn. One shot by Mr. Hele is in the Ipswich Museum, and another shot by the present writer in Thorpe Mere 14 September, 1872, was re- corded in the Zoologist for that year (p. 3307) as follows : ' To-day I was lucky enough to shoot a pectoral sandpiper in the north mere. Three birds skimmed past me within a longish shot and I shot at them and killed this one, thinking that they were curlew- sandpipers. It is evidently a bird of the year from the light-coloured margins to the feathers ; the sex I could not ascertain with certainty owing to the shot marks. The legs and base of lower mandible were light yellowish brown and irides dark brown ; the body was loaded with fat. The wind had been blowing rather freely from the west for some days and I fancy that this bird must have been blown over to the coast of Norway or Iceland, and then have joined a flock of knots or curlew- sandpipers on their way southward.' 216. Siberian Pectoral Sandpiper. Tringa acuminata (Horsfield) This is the old world representative of the last-named species, and recently added to the British list, a specimen having been shot on Breydon 29 August, 1892, of which full details are given in the Zoologist for 1892 (pp. 356-8). 217. Dunlin. Tringa alpina, Linn. Locally, Oxbird. The commonest wader on the coast but never breeding in Suffolk, though it does so regularly in many English counties. The young birds arrive quite early in August and in winter it is sometimes seen in great flocks. 2 1 8. Little Stint. Tringa minuta, Leisler. A spring and autumn migrant sometimes rather common. When curlew-sandpipers are abundant this species usually comes in fair numbers, but never in large flocks, and in spring it is always rare. 219. Temminck's Stint. Tringa temmincki, Leisler. Also a spring and autumn migrant, rarer than the little stint. In plumage it much resembles the common sandpiper and has yellowish legs, those of the little stint being black. 220. Curlew-Sandpiper. Tringa subarquata (Guldenstadt) This species is sometimes common enough in autumn, when as many as six have been killed at a shot in the Aldeburgh meres. In the handsome summer dress, which resembles that of the knot at the same season, it is much rarer, but a good many have been obtained both on Breydon and near Aldeburgh. The long down-curved bill from which the name is derived enables it to be recognized in any 207
