CATALOGUE OF BIRDS. 293 



Jack Snipe is slower and more bat-like. There is 

 no authenticated instance of the Jack ever having 

 bred in our islands. It arrives earlier, as a rule, than 

 the Common Snipe, often being in by the middle of 

 September. 



It favours the most swampy places on the bog, 

 what in Ireland are called "sloughs," i.e., veins 

 running through the ordinary bog, filled with 

 heavy coarse green tussocks of grass, on either side 

 of which you would probably sink up to your middle 

 in the most horrible slush. These are the sort of 

 spots the Jack loves to dwell in, and in consequence 

 many a little bird owes his life to being in this sort 

 of un-get-at-able place : for though the dog may fix 

 the Snipe, its a case of an immovable dog, and a 

 bird that won't budge, and, as you can't go in your- 

 self, all you can do is to leave the Jack to himself 

 and call the dog off. When, however, he is in a 

 place where you can get in close to the dogs set, he 

 is generally not more than a foot or two from the 

 dog's nose, very often only an inch or two. Now, 

 when you have the bird as close as that to you, and 

 in many cases actually see him on the ground, you 

 would think it was any odds on the gun. I don't, 

 however, think that to be the case, for it is quite 

 common to miss him under such conditions, as the 

 Jack Snipe has a very peculiar flight, totally unlike 

 his larger congener ; as a rule when a Jack flits up 

 he seems to fly more like a butterfly than anything 

 else, rising and dropping in the air from six inches 

 to a foot at a time, and just when you are pulling 



