THE JACK SNIPE 259 
the Scottish name ‘ Heather-bleater ’, was also given to it as descrip- 
tive of its peculiar summer note. The female sits closely on her 
eggs, and if disturbed while in charge of her yet unfledged brood, 
endeavours to distract the attention of an intruder from them to 
herself by the artifice already described as being employed by others 
of the Waders. 
‘Sabine’s Snipe,’, which was at one time thought to be a distinct 
Species, is now admitted to be a melanism, a dark variety of the 
Common Snipe, recent examination of specimens having proved 
that its tail contains fourteen feathers and not twelve only, as was 
supposed. It is seldom found outside Great Britain. 
THE JACK (SNIPE 
GALLINAGO GALLINULA 
Crown divided longitudinally by a black band edged with reddish brown ; 
beneath this on either side a parallel yellowish band reaching from the 
bill to the nape; back beautifully mottled with buff, reddish brown, and 
black, the latter lustrous with green and purple ; neck and breast spotted ; 
belly and abdomen pure white; tail of twelve feathers, dusky edged 
with reddish grey; bill dusky, lighter towards the base. Length eight 
and a half inches. Eggs yellowish olive, spotted with brown. 
As the Great Snipe has been called the Double Snipe, on account 
of its being superior in size to the common species, so the subject 
of the present chapter is known as the Half Snipe, from being con- 
trasted with the same bird, and being considerably smaller. The 
present species is far less abundant than the Common Snipe; yet 
still it is often seen, more frequently, perhaps, than the other, by 
non-sporting observers, for it frequents not only downright marshes, 
but the little streams which meander through meadows, the sides 
of grassy ponds, and the drains by the side of canals, where the 
ordinary pedestrian, if accompanied by a dog, will be very likely 
to put one up. Its food and general habits are much the same as 
those of the Common Snipe ; but it rises and flies off without any 
note. Its flight is singularly crooked until it has made up its mind 
which direction it intends to take ; indeed it seems to decide even- 
tually on the one which was at first most unlikely to be its path, 
and after having made a short round composed of a series of dis- 
jointed curves, it either returns close to the spot from which it was 
started, or suddenly drops, as by a sudden impulse, into a ditch a 
few gunshots off. I have seen one drop thus within twenty yards 
of the spot where I stood, and though I threw upwards of a dozen 
stones into the place where I saw it go down, it took no notice of 
them. It was only by walking down the side of the ditch, beating 
the rushes with a stick, that I induced it to rise again. It then 
