250 ENGLISH BIRD LIFE 



from the land of his birth is a difficult question to 

 answer. It is certain that a few pairs are always 

 to be found here summer and winter, and they were 

 probably bred on the lower heathery ground which 

 slopes to the bog. So it may be that the man who 

 would learn something of the life-history of the 

 Common Snipe can find no better point of observa- 

 tion than this remote corner of the county of Kerry. 



There are three true British Snipe only, for the 

 Red-breasted Snipe, although classed as a British 

 bird, is a rare American straggler, and Sabine's 

 Snipe is now known to be a mere melanic variety of 

 the common species. These three are known as the 

 Great, the Common, and the Jack, or, in old fowlers' 

 phrases, the double, the full, and the half snipe, 

 these terms having reference to the relative sizes of 

 the birds. One onl}^, the Common, nests in the 

 British Isles. The Great Snipe breeds in Norway 

 and Sweden, and in other parts of the Continent, 

 and is a comparatively rare visitant to Great Britain. 

 The Jack, on the other hand, comes here in com- 

 paratively large numbers on migration, but until 

 recent years its nest and eggs had never been dis- 

 covered. They were first found by Mr. J. Wolley 

 in a marsh in Lapland, and subsecjuently Messrs. 

 Seebohm and Harvie-Brown came upon the nests 

 in the delta of the Petchora river in Siberia. 



The nest of the Common Snipe, if the few bits 

 of dried grass scraped together in a hollow can be 

 called a nest, is not easy to find. Perhaps in one 

 sense it may be said never to be found at all. The 

 secret of its hiding-place is usually given away, and 

 given away by the very skill and care which the bird 



