recorded on Alert Stack. The species has also been introduced to Putauhinu Island. Its favoured habitat is the moist floor beneath Olearia and Brachyglottis forest, with a ground layer of grass tussocks, sedges, mat-forming herbs and Polystichum vestitum shield ferns. Behaviour Edgar Stead reported on a visit to the Snares in December 1947 by saying of the snipe: "When flushed in the daytime it runs for a few feet then stands still silently regarding the intruder. They are reluctant to fly during the daytime and when they do it is not for more than ten or fifteen yards and often for only two or three. At night they fly more readily and for considerable distances. Their food apparently consists chiefly of worms. Always snipe are to be found on the outskirts of penguin colonies. Their laying season commenced at the beginning of December. Nests were found in the heart of big tussocks of Poa foliosa about one foot above ground level. The nests were deep cups of fine grass 9 ½ cm wide by 7 cm deep, and contained a good deal of material." Breeding Most of the snipe breed in monogamous pairs, which hold breeding territories, with both parents sharing incubation duties of the two-egg clutch, in a nest concealed in dense ground vegetation. When the chicks hatch they weigh 14-18 g and are precocial and nidifugous; the male parent looks after the first chick to leave the nest, while the female takes care of the second. The chicks remain with their respective parents for about eight weeks, and are fed by them for the first two. They are capable of flight at about 30 days old. Feeding The snipe feed on a variety of small invertebrates, including annelids, amphipods, spiders and insects, obtained by probing with their long bills in the soil and leaf litter. Status and conservation The total population of the species in the Snares is estimated at just over 400 pairs. On 16 April 2005 thirty snipe were translocated from North East Island in the Snares to Putauhinu Island, in order to establish an insurance population against the possibility of the Snares being threatened by the accidental introduction of terrestrial predators. Putauhinu lies in the south-western chain of the Titi Islands, near Stewart Island. It lies 1.5 km west of Big South Cape Island, which was the final refuge for the now extinct South Island