¡EomoomPTiES eáHwmA,
LYMNOCRYPTES GALLINULA.
Ja ck Snipe.
Scolopax GallmUa, Liun. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 244.
Gattinaffo minima, Ray, Syn., 105. A S.
-----------minor, Btiss. Ora., tom. v. p. 303, pi. 26. fig. 2.
— gaämnta, Bonap. Geogr. and Comp. List of Birds of Eur. and N. Amer., p. 62.
Lymnocryptn pttfttnula, Kaup.
PhiMmmot galimula, stagmtilis, et. minor, Brehm, Handb. der Naturg. aller Vög. Deutschl., pp. 623, 624.
To ih sportsman this little Snipe is ever an object o f in te res t; for it seldom rises from the marsh without
attracting his immediate attention. The Pheasant is permitted to wait his convenience, or the Partridge
is given the chance of escape until the little Ja ck is again flushed from the bed of flags into which he has
ju st dropped. Why is it that so small an object (for its weight is not more than two ounces) commands
so much an*»«« regard ? For the simple reasons that it is a migrant, that it is second to no bird for
the table, and that it is somewhat difficult to shoot. The Jack Snipe exhibits many peculiarities, and differs
considerably from its allies, both in its form and in its mode o f life. It is more secluded io its habits,
is less easily raised from the ground, and seems to depend for safety more on the harmony of its colouring
with that.of the surrounding herbage than on its powers of flight. When it does take wing, it usually settles
again within a hundred yards, and never mounts and circles in the air. like the common species, from which
it also differs in never uttering the well-known scape-scape. I t sometimes lies so close as to admit of its
being trodden u p o n ; and when the sportsman goes quickly to the place in which he has marked his bird, it
cannot be seen, despite the most searching scrutiny—the bird all the while being perchance at his heel,
or half covered with the leaf o f a flag o r some other plant with which its plumage blends in colour. How
beautiful are its iridescent tin ts! what lovely hues of pnrple, green, and buff! how harmoniously are they
arranged : If an artist wish to see them in perfection/ he must accompany the sportsman to the field or
the morass; for they fade as the life o f the bird ebbs away.
1 have stated that the Ja ck Snipe is a m igrant: for it is only in autumn, winter, and the early p art o f spring
that it is with us. In the summer it departs to breed in northern lands, mostly to those parts of Norway,
Sweden, Finland, and Russia which lie within the arctic circle. In England, Scotland, and Ireland I have
received no reliable information o f its having bred, though we now and then find solitary birds in summer.
The numbers which are frequently seen late in the spring are only apt to mislead the observer; they all quit
this country before-the beginning o f June, which is soon enough to enable them to arrive a t their breeding-
qcarters by the time the snows have melted. Mr. Smither, who lives on one o f the great heaths near Farnbam
in Surrey, wrote me, on the 9th of May 1881, "W e have many J a c k Snipe with us at present, and I have
great hopes some will stop and n e s t b u t as I. never heard th at they did so, I conclude th at the flight soon
after departed to countries more to their liking. Why they should not find a coogenial summer home, as
they do a winter one, around the great ponds of Frencham and the soppy depressions overran with flags
and herbage *f the extensive moors in that neighbourhood, I am unable to say. The Common Snipe breeds
there - and why the Jack Snipe does not I cannot tell, my readers, any more than I can say why some of the
tens of thousands of Brarahlings, which are now (March 25, 1S85) to be seen a t Stoke, Cliveden, and Drop-
more in Buckinghamshire, do not, like the Chaffinch/ stay and breed with us. It is the habit of this little
Snipe to go to the extensive morasses of Lapland for this purpose; but as certain as he goes, it is equally
certain that he will return In August a few may again be seen, in September m o re; in October, at the
full of the moon, great flight* will arrive and take possession o f all suitable situations in the British Islands,
and will there remain if not dispersed or killed. To give an account of the “ g reat bags " of this bird that
. Jmve-heen shot in a day would an»wer no purpose; but when we remember the wholesale slaughter that
annually takes place in England wd « a r t s every part of Ireland, it is evident th at its numbers must be
doubled or trebled every year in a » countries „»known to us, or it would long since have been extinct.
There is but little external difference in the appearance o f the sexes, one style o f plumage being common
to both When the bird arrives in autumn, it is generally clean-moulted and in very fine trim ; some have
very beautiful purple rumps, while in other, the same part is mottled brown. I at one time thought that
these were sexual distinctions; but I h a te not been able to satisfy myself that they are so, though I am
certain that some of the birds with purple rumps are females. This variation in the colouring requires
. morl, attention from ornithologists than 1 have been able to give to it. I t is ju st possible that the mottled-
' brown colouring of the rump may be a characteristic of the young birds of the year.