As yet I have only spoken of the Jack Snipe as an inhabitant of Britain and the northern countries of
Europe. I may now state that it is also found in Asia Minor, Persia, and India, from one end of the peninsula
to the other ; but Schrenck did not meet with it on the Amoor, nor Mr. Swinhoe in China.
In specimens from all these localities, distant though they be, no visible difference occurs in the plumage.
A Jack Snipe from India is the veritable bird o f oar own island.
The only certain information we have respecting the breeding of this species is that which was supplied
to the last edition of Mr. Hewitson’s work by the late Mr. John Wolley. The following is an extract from
the account he gives :—■
“ It was on the 17th o f June, 1853, in the great marsh of Muonioniska, that I first heard the Jack-Snipe,
though at the time I could not a t all guess what it was—an extraordinary sound, unlike anything I had
heard before; I could not tell from what direction it came, and it filled me with curious surprise- my
Finnish interpreter thought it was a Capercally, and a t that time I could not contradict him; but I soon
found that it was a small bird gliding a t a wild pace, and a t a great height over the marsh. I know not
how better to describe the noise than by likening it to the cantering o f a horse in the distance over a hard
hollow road ; tt came m fours, with a similar cadence, and a like clear yet hollow sound. The same day we
found a nest winch seemed to be of a kind unknown to me. The next morning I went to Kharto Uoma
with a number o f beaters; I kept them, as well as I could, in line, myself in the middle, my Swedish
travelling companion on one side and the Finn talker on the other. Whenever a bird was put off its eggs,
the man who saw it was to pass on the word, and the whole line was to stand while I went to examine thé
eggs and take them a t once, o r observe the bearings o f the spot for another visit,- as might be necessary
We had not been many hours in the marsh before I saw a bird get up, and marked it down.....................The
nest was found. A sight o f the eggs, as they lay untouched, raised my expectations to the highest pitch
I went to the spot where I had marked the bird, put it up again, and again saw it, after a short low flight
drop suddenly into cover. I fired, and in a minute had in my hand a true Jack Snipe, the undoubted
parent of the nest o f eggs ! In the course of the day and night, I found three more nests, and examined
the birds o f each. One allowed me to touch it with my hand before it rose, and another only got up when
my foot was within 6 inches o f it. I t was very fortunate that I was enabled to identify so fine a series of
eggs, for they differ considerably from one another. I was never afterwards able to see a nest myself, though
I beat through numbers o f swamps; several with eggs, mostly hard sat upon, were found by people cutting
hay in boggy places m July. The nest o f the 17th, and the four o f the 18th of June, were all alike in
structure, made loosely o f little pieces o f grass and Bp.keU.rn, not at all woven together, with a few old
leaves o f the dwarf birch, placed m a dry sedgy o r grassy spot close to a more open swamp.”
l o this Mr. Hewitson adds, “ were not the eggs verified beyond a doubt, no one would credit that a bird
o f dimensions not much larger than a Skylark could produce them, or, having produced them, could keep
them warm. They arc precisely o f the same length as those o f the Common Snipe, but are not so wide at
U W B M i weighs about two ounces ; the four eggs more than an ounce and a half H
the eggs of the Ja ck Snipe weigh nearly as much as the bird itself.”
All this has reference to that tract o f Central Lapland which was so laboriously explored by Mr. Wolley
rther to the south and west the Ja ck Snipe does not seem to breed; a t least Mr. Wheelwright never met
with it ,n the neighbourhood of Quickiock : but in an easterly direction it is probable that its summer range
■ . onThe H H i ' a” U bCe"with it on the Bogamda, first noticing its arrival ftowl afrdls t‘h°e ^end o f” Jeuanre l B
Mr. Alfred Newton tells me that the eggs o f this species, o f which he possesses a large series, are subject
very great variations both ,n size and colouring.^ Some are hardly to be distinguished from those of
« n t f r h T ■ B H BSBE H 0f the ®roa(Fbilled Sandpiper. The same
L y at M u o n f o n t r TT tted ff° ^ ! 7 \ S,ketcheS ° f t,le M s , which he. executed during his
toy at Muonioniska. They differ considerably from the young o f the Common Snipe, being of a very much
■cher brown colour, but mottled with lighter tints and white after a somewhat similar fashion
As it is always of interest to quote any notes respecting our birds as seen in India, I annex the followinn S— ®rd8 of that BHHIJack Snipe is S'™1'3'1* diffused throughout India, preferring thicker coverts than the Common Snipe, lying very close, and difficult to find
Now and then considerable numbers will be met with ; in other pièces it is rare y seen I t make its'
a „ e later than the Common Snipe, and departs earlier, breed i,* b the norther,f parts of'E u ^ p e a^d
The figures are of the natural size. The elegant little white-flowered bog-plant is the Parnassia palus,rk .