JACK SNIPE. 341 
north. Mr. A. Hamond, jun., informs me that he 
once found a jack snipe in a swampy part of Hast 
Walton Common, in June, but had no reason to suppose 
that the bird had a nest there; and in June, 1868, a 
single bird of this species was seen by Riche, the 
broadman, at Surlingham; yet all such instances are 
no more evidence of this species intending to breed 
here* than the presence on our coast throughout the 
summer of a few dunlins, sanderlings, or grey plover. 
The fact of the jack snipe during the breeding season 
emitting a strange noise when on the wing, yet differmg 
altogether from the “drumming” of the common 
species, appears to have been first noticed by the late 
Mr. Wolley. The following interesting description of it 
from the pen of that accomplished naturalist, is pub- 
lished by Hewitson (‘‘ Eggs of Brit. Bds.,” 3rd ed.) :— 
“ Tt 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 extra- 
ordinary sound unlike anything 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 capercally, 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 
* In Mr. A. G. More’s paper “on the Distribution of Birds in 
Great Britain during the nesting season” I find the following 
observations (“ Ibis,” 1865, p. 438):—“A few instances are on 
record in which the jack snipe has been seen in England during 
the summer months; hitherto there appears to be no good 
authority for believing that the nest has been found in this island.” 
In Lapland, Mr. A. Newton informs me the jack snipe seldom lays 
before the middle of June at the earliest, and constantly breeds 
quite into August. 
