LYMNOCRYPTES GALLINULA.
Ja ck Snipe.
Scolopax Gallimla, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 244.
Gallinago minima, Ray, 83m., 105. A 3.
------------minor, Briss. Orn., tom. v. p. 303, pi. 26. fig. 2.
:— gallinula, Bonap. Geogr. and Comp. List of Birds of Eur. and N. Amer., p. 62.
Lgmnocryptes gallimla, Kaup.
Philolimnos gallimla, stagnatilis, et minor, Brehm, Handb. der Naturg. aller Vög. Deutschl., pp. 623, 624.
To the sportsman this little Snipe is ever an object of in te rest; for it seldom rises from the marsh without
attracting his immediate attention. The Pheasant is permitted to wait his convenience, o r 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 s t dropped. Why is it that so small an object (for its weight is not more than two ounces) commands
so much anxious 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 in its habits,
is. less easily raised from the ground, and seems to depend for safety more on the harmony of its colouring
with th at o f 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 a t his heel,
o r half covered with the leaf of a flag or some other plant with which its plumage blends in colour. How
beautiful a re its iridescent tin ts! what lovely hues of purple, green, and buff! how harmoniously are they
arranged! I f 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 of the bird ebbs away.
I have stated that the Ja ck Snipe is a migrant; for it is only in autumn, winter, and the early part of spring
th at it is with us. In the summer it departs to breed in northern lands, mostly to those parts o f Norway,
Sweden, Finland, and Russia which lie wilhin the arctic circle. In England, Scotland, and Ireland I have
received no reliable information of 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 at their breeding-
quarters by the time the snows have melted. Mr. Smither, who lives on one of the great heaths near Farnham
in Surrey, wrote me, on the 9th of May 1861, “ We have many J a c k Snipe with us at present, and I have
great hopes some will stop and n e s t;” but 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 congenial summer home, as
they do a winter one, around the great ponds o f Frencham and the soppy depressions overrun with flags
and herbage o f the extensive moors in th at neighbourhood, I am unable to say. The Common Snipe breeds
th e re ; and why the Ja ck Snipe does uot I cannot tell my readers, any more than I can say why some of the
tens o f thousands of Bramblings, which are now (March 25, 1865) 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 o f Lapland for this p urpose; but as certain as he goes, it is equally
certain that he will return. In August a few may again be seen, in September more; in October, at the
full of the moon, great flights 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 “ great bags ” of this bird that
have b een.shot in a day would answer no purpose; but when we remember the wholesale slaughter that
annually takes place in England and nearly every part of Ireland, it is evident that its numbers must be
doubled or trebled every year in some countries unknown 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 others the same p art is mottled brown. I a t one time thought that
these wpre sexual distinctions ; but I have not been able to satisfy myself th at they a re so, though I am
certain that some of the birds with purple rumps are females. This variation in the colouring requires
more attention from ornithologists than I 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 o f the young birds of the year.