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GENUS LIMNOCRYPTES. 

 JACK SNIPE. 



LiMNOCRYPTES GALLINULA (LinilffiUS). 



Local Name — Jack Snipe. 



Although far from being as plentiful as the Common 

 Snipe, this winter visitor is very evenly distributed, 

 and occasionally, as Lord Lilford tells me is the case 

 at Tarleton, appears in great numbers. Blackwall 

 ("Researches in Zoology," 1834, p. 7) gives October 1st 

 and April 3rd as the average dates for its arrival and 

 departure between 1814 and 1828 in the neighbourhood 

 of Manchester, and I have these confirmed from many 

 other sources ; but it is very often noticed by the third 

 week in September, and Mr. Hugh P. Hornby tells me 

 that in 1878 he saw one on the 21st of August. Gener- 

 ally, it is reported as occurring less frequently than 

 formerly, but near Overton Mr. T. Jackson thinks it 

 increases, feeding on the rushy marshes in wet, and l)y 

 the streams in frosty, weather. It is a solitary species, 

 and does not occur in flocks like the Common Snipe. 

 Odd birds have been known to remain until very late in 

 spring, and a correspondent of the Field of May 16th, 

 1874, says that in Prince's Park, Liverpool, he saw on 



being of string, and the guelders only one hair in thickness. After 

 a fall of snow is the most favourable time, a long narrow strip of 

 ground being swept bare, and some wheat thrown down. Not 

 many other birds fall victims in this way, but Lord Lilfoi'd writes 

 (Zool., 1883, p. 495), " On October 25th I received from one of otu- 

 gamekeepers a very fine old male Scoter, CEdcmia nigra, minus 

 one foot, with a note stating that the bird was ' caught,' probably in 

 a 'pantle ' or snipe-snare, on the mere in Tarleton, on 22nd inst." 



