JACK SNIPE. 227 



There are also other instances of the Snipe breeding in the northern 

 and western sides of the county. 



" Snipe are numerous in the Golden Valley," says the Rev. T. 

 Powell, Rector of Dorstone, "and they breed there regularly." In his 

 very interesting pamphlet on the Golden Valley he gives the following 

 amusing account of a Dorstone mystery. " In the spring of 1875, 

 1879, and 1881, the inhabitants of the village were greatly agitated 

 by sounds of an unearthly nature always heard at a given spot, and 

 at a given time, between nine and ten o'clock at night. The spot 

 where it occurred was about a quarter of a mile from the church, 

 on the main road to Hay, close to a swampy plantation. Standing 

 near the gate into this plantation, people could hear, high above, 

 the movement of rapid wings cleaving the air in ascending and 

 descending circles, There was also heard a sound as of the bleating 

 of a kid mingled with the cry of an infant ; now here, now there, 

 now rising, now descending, often receding, then approaching, but 

 never seen. At this spot, women and children assembled nightly 

 for a fortnight, to hear and wonder : and then the mystery ceased. 

 Natural history explains it as the action of the male Snipe, during 

 the process of preparing by the female for incubation." 



The swamp, where hums the dropping Snipe. 



Tennyson— On a Mourner. 



Genus— LIMNOCRYPTES. 



LIMNOCRYPTES GALLINULA— Jack Snipe. 



\Gallinago gallt?iula — Yar7'elL^ 



If I would time expend with such a Snipe 

 But for my sport and profit. 



Shakespeare— 0^^e?^o /., 3. 



The Jack Snipe, Half Snipe, or Judcock, is not a common 



bird in Herefordshire. It occurs in isolated spots every winter, 



and is generally solitary. A Jack Snipe will sometimes afford a 



whole morning's shooting to a boy home for the Christmas holidays, 



for he is very diflficult to hit, never flies far, and does not seem to 



mind being shot at. 



