LIMICOLM. 



JACK SNIPE. 



1.) i- . ' 



351 



SCOLOPA (JID^E. 



Gallinago gallinula (Linnaeus *). 



THE JACK SNIPE. 



Scolopax gallinula. 



Though allied to tbo Snipes in its haunts and general 

 habits, the Jack Snipe is still distinguished by various pecu- 

 liarities.! It is more decidedly a winter visitor only, the 

 instances of its remaining through the summer in this 

 country being very rare. It is more solitary than the 

 Common Snipe, though sometimes found in pairs, but these 

 seldom get up together, or go far before they settle again ; 

 and although it feeds on bare, boggy ground, yet when not 

 searching for food it chooses sheltered situations among 

 strong rushes, or coarse long grass, and the luxuriant vegeta- 

 tion common to moist grounds. In such places the Jack 



* Scolopax Oallinula, Linnseus, Syst. Nat. Ed. 12, i. p. 244 (1766). 



t Owing to the tail-feathers being only twelve in number, and some other 

 points of difference, Kaup made it the type of the genus Limnocryptes ; it is 

 also distinguished by some osteological peculiarities, but so are the two preceding 

 species, and for the purposes of the present work it appears convenient to place 

 the three British Snipes in the genus Gallinago. 



