212 ALLEN'S NATURALISTS LIBRARY. 



terranean countries, and migrates through Turkestan as well as 

 through Japan and China. It is found in India and Burma 

 during the cold season, and has been known to occur as far 

 east as the Island of Formosa. 



Habits. — These differ very little from those of the Common 

 Snipe, with the exception that, when it rises, the Jack-Snipe 

 seldom utters any note. When in Heligoland with the late 

 Mr. Seebohm and Mr. F. Nicholson, I frequently kicked up 

 Jack-Snipe in the potato-fields, and when disturbed from the 

 grass on Sandy Island, I have often seen these birds perch on 

 the heaps of sea-weed, and have shot them sitting on several 

 occasions. 



Nest. — The first taking of the nest of the Jack-Snipe was one 

 of the achievements of the late John Wolley in Lapland. I give 

 the following extract from his account published in Hewitson's 

 "Eggs of British Birds" :— " It was on the 17th of June, 1853, in 

 the great marsh of Muonioniska, that I first heard the Jack-Snipe, 

 though at the time I could not at all guess what it was ; an ex- 

 traordinary sound, unlike anything that I had heard before. I 

 could not tell from what direction it came, and it filled me 

 with a curious surprise ; my Finnish interpreter thought it was 

 a Capercaillie, and at that time I could not contradict him, but 

 soon I found that it was a small bird gliding at a wild pace at 

 a great height over the marsh. I know not how better to 

 describe the noise than by likening it to the cantering of a horse 

 in the distance, over a hard, hollow road ; it came in fours in 

 similar cadence, and with a clear yet hollow sound. The same 

 day we found a nest which seemed to be a kind unknown to me. 

 The next morning I went to Kharto Uoma with a good strength 

 of beaters. I kept them as well as I could in a line, myself 

 in the middle, my Swedish travelling companion on one side, 

 and the Finn talker on the other. Whenever a bird was put 

 off its eggs, the man who saw it was to pass on the word, and 

 the whole line was to stand whilst I went to examine the eggs 

 and take them at once, or observe the bearings of the spot for 

 another visit, as might be necessary. We had not been many 

 hours in the marsh when I saw a bird get up and I marked it 

 down. . . . The nest was found. ... A sight of the 

 eggs as they lay untouched raised my expectations to the high- 



