JACK SNIPE. . 395 
about the middle or end of September, although strag- 
elers have been occasionally observed at an earlier date. 
Mr. Lubbock states that on the 1st of August, 1833, he 
saw a jack snipe, killed on Barton Fen. ‘“ The bird was 
in good plumage and condition,” and he believed it had 
“migrated earlier than its wonted time.” In 1831 
he saw a couple that had been shot on the 12th of 
September, and he has seen others as early as the 8th. 
I have also notes of a couple seen by myself in 1852, 
which had been shot at Barton on the 14th of Sep- 
tember.* As with the common snipes, however, the 
jacks are most plentiful, and more generally dispersed 
during October and November; and though the larger 
number may take their departure during severe weather, 
yet even more in proportion than the common snipes, 
resort during prolonged frosts to our inland springs and 
water-courses, where, in certain sheltered nooks, they 
are always found in high condition. Whether less 
susceptible of cold, owing to their sluggish habits 
and rapid tendency to fatten, this species is certainly 
hardier than its more active kindred; for on more than 
one occasion I have flushed several couples of jacks 
from the open marshes at Surlingham, when a frost, of 
two or three days’ duration, had driven all the ‘“‘wholé” 
snipes from that neighbourhood. Upon this habit of 
taking the rough with the smooth, and still getting 
fat under trying circumstances, Mr. Lubbock aptly 
remarks, ‘‘a driving wind, intermixed with sleet, often 
sets all the “whole” snipes upon a range of marsh in 
motion. They are perpetually changing place, and 
fly in small parties round and round, shrieking out 
* In the “ Zoologist” for 1868 (p. 1029), Mr. Cordeaux records a 
jack snipe as shot by himself in a turnip-field, in North Lincoln- 
shire, on the 26th of September; and another correspondent 
(p. 1059), states that on the 24th of August, of the same year, he 
flushed a jack snipe in some water meadows, near Dorchester. 
