2 SCOLOPACID^. 



and Egypt, where it sometimes remains as late as May ; it also ascends the Nile 

 to Abyssinia. In Asia it breeds on the tundras of Siberia as far north as lat. 70°, 

 migrating to Japan and even Formosa in the cold season, as well as to Tenasserim 

 and the rest of the Indian region, Persia, and Turkestan ; as yet, however, it has 

 not been traced across the Pamir or other lofty ranges." 



The late Mr. John Wolley obtained the first thoroughly identified eggs of 

 the Jack Snipe in Lapland. He communicated the following account of his 

 discovery to the late Mr. W. C. Hewitson, who published the same in his ' Eggs 

 of British Birds ' * : — " I scarcely like to tell you about the Jack-Snipe, anything 

 I can say must be so poor an expression of my exultation at the finding of this 

 long wished-for egg. It 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 extraordinary 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. 1 know not how better to describe the noise than 

 by likening it to the cantering of a horse in the distance, over a hard, hollow road ; 

 it came in fours with a similar cadence, and a like clear yet hollow sound. The 

 same day we found a nest which seemed to be of a kind unknown to me. The 

 next morning I went to Kharto Uoma with a good strength of beaters. I kept 

 them, as well as I could, in a line, — myself in the middle, my Swedish travelling 

 companion on one side, and the Finn talker on the other. Whenever a bu-d was 

 put off its eggs, the man who saw it was to pass on the word, and the whole line 

 was to stand wliilst I went to examine the eggs and take them at once, or observe 

 the bearings of the spot for another visit, as might be necessary. We had not 

 been many hours in the marsh, when I saw a bird get up, and I marked it down. 



.... The nest was found A sight of the eggs as they lay untouched 



raised my expectations to the highest pitch. I went to the spot where I had 

 marked the bird, put it up again, and again saw it, after a short low flight, drop 

 suddenly into cover. Once more it rose a few feet from where it had settled. I 

 fired ! and in a minute had in my hand a true Jack-Snipe, the undoubted parent 

 of the nest of eggs ! . . . . As usual, I took measures to let the whole party 

 have a share in my gratification before I again gave ine word to advance. In the 

 course of the day and night I found three more nests and examined the birds of 

 each. One allowed me to touch it with my hand before it rose, and another only 



* Third edition, vol. ii. pp. 356-358. 



