258 Northern Observations of Inland Birds 



it may be on into August ere the last families quit the 

 swamp of their birth. 



The jack snipe is a smaller bird than the common 

 snipe, and is a winter visitor chiefly. It does not breed 

 in our island, but comes in September and October, 

 returning to the same haunts year after year. The habit 

 of taking cover and crouching is even more strongly 

 developed in this bird than in the common snipe ; it 

 will sit still till almost stepped upon, and it is owing 

 to its peculiar stupidity in this way that it is known by 

 the French as the deaf snipe. I remember on one 

 occasion looking over a wall and seeing a jack snipe feeding 

 on the other side. The little bird was much surprised, 

 and at once crouched, though full in the open. I threw 

 several pebbles at it, but though I almost hit it more than 

 once it refused to rise until I climbed over the wall and 

 walked straight towards it. 



The jack snipe leaves us in April, then in very beautiful 

 plumage. It breeds in Northern Europe, where it has 

 an aerial performance similar to that of the common 

 snipe, and described by Woolley as a sound resembling 

 the cantering of a horse over a hard, hollow road. 



When disturbed the jack snipe does not usually fly very 

 high or for any great distance. He makes his way to the 

 other end of the swamp and pitches. They do not pack 

 as do common snipe, and are invariably found singly. | 

 There is a tale told about an Irish clergyman, for whom 

 a single jack snipe afforded a season's shooting year after 

 year. Day after day he found it at the same place, and 

 day after day he blazed both barrels at it. The parson was 

 growing old, and one day a stranger trespassed on his 

 property and shot his snipe. This blow proved so 

 severe that the reverend gentleman died very shortly 

 afterwards. 



