330 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 
their disgust at the storm. Not so the jack; the lee- 
side of a tuft of grass, or a small piece of turf, affords 
him shelter, and there he ensconces himself with philo- 
sophic patience.” When flushed the jack snipe emits 
no ery, but with a somewhat slow though tortuous flight 
mounts up gradually for a short distance, and then 
abruptly pitcbes down into any convenient shelter. The 
reluctance of the jack to take wing, whether on a marsh 
or by the sedgy margin of a river or drain, is well 
known, and the bird has acquired, from its apparent 
indifference to the sound of approaching footsteps or 
the report of firearms, the French name of Bécassine 
sourde ; but as the hare, though conscious of danger, 
will, hoping to escape detection, crouch down in her 
form rather than trust to her swiftness of foot, so 
this species, I imagine, relies for safety in concealment, 
and rises only when compelled to do so. It is a very 
usual thing on the broads, when rowing round the 
edges of the reed-beds—looking for snipes on the mown 
‘““hoves,” to get two or three shots at the “whole” snipes 
as they twist over the reeds, and then, on sending a dog 
on to the treacherous soil, to flush one or two jacks that 
would not otherwise have shown themselves. In like 
manner, when carefully looking a marsh for the second 
time in the day a staunch dog will usually find one or 
more jacks that had been passed over before; and even 
a bird that has been flushed and escaped to a distance, 
will not unfrequently be found in an hour or two in its 
former haunt. I remember on the 24th of October, 
1859, during a somewhat early frost, finding five couples 
and a half of jack snipes in one corner of a marsh, 
which, judging from the “ borings” all over the soil, 
was a most attractive spot. These birds rose one at a 
time, as the marshman and myself quartered the ground 
carefully, and those that I missed or had no chance 
of shooting at dropped again within twenty yards of 
