JACK SNIPE, 605 



Scolopax sabini. — Sabine's Snipe — Arthur Strickland says he has 

 reason to believe, from description, that one was killed in his neighbour- 

 hood a few years ago. 



Local names : — Long Neb is used in the East and North 

 Ridings ; Full Snipe at Scarborough ; and Heather Bleater 

 is mentioned by Captain Turton as in use at Upsall. 



JACK SNIPE. 

 Scolopax gallinula (L.). 



Winter visitant ; generally distributed in suitable situations. 

 Arrives in October, and departs in April. 



The first mention of this as a Yorkshire species occurs in 

 Willughby's " Ornithology," under the title of " The Gid, 

 or Jack-Snipe or Judcock : — I, sometimes, following the 

 vulgar error, thought it not to differ from the Snipe in kind, 

 but only in sex, taking it to be the Cock-Snipe. But after- 

 wards being advised by Mr. M. Lister [of York], I found it to 

 differ specifically. For, dissecting several of these small 

 ones, some proved to be males, some females." (Will. 

 " Orn." 1678, p. 291.) 



Thomas Allis, 1844, wrote : — 



Scolopax gallinula. — Jack Snipe — Is common in most parts ; it 

 breeds in the neighbourhood of Huddersfield, at Slaithwaite, and 

 .... it breeds occasionally near Doncaster and Halifax. 



Needless to remark, there is not the slightest evidence 

 in support of Allis's statement respecting the nesting of this 

 bird in Yorkshire, which error is also repeated by Yarrell 

 (" British Birds," 1843, 11. p. 614), by Mr. C. C. Hanson {Nat. 

 1881), and by more than one of my numerous correspondents ; 

 it is quite evident, on investigation of the circumstances, 

 that the Dunlin has, in all these cases, been mistaken for 

 the species under notice. 



This diminutive Snipe is a winter visitant, generally 

 arriving in October, varying in numbers in different seasons, 



