JACK SNIPE. 3 



got up when my foot was within six inches of it. It was very fortunate I was 

 able to identify so fine a series of eggs, for they differ considerably from one 

 another. I was never afterwards able to see a nest myself, though I beat through 

 numbers of swamps ; several Avith eggs mostly hard sat upon were found by 

 people cutting hay in boggy places in July. I have spent a good many hours this 

 present year (1854) in the same Kharto Uoma without finding one, though I had 

 plenty of men and boys in good working order. There have certainly been but 

 few Jack-Snipes in the country this season. 



"The nest of the 17th, and the four of the 18th June, were all alike in 

 structure, made loosely of little pieces of grass and equisetum not at all woven 

 together, with a few old leaves of the dwarf birch, placed in a dry sedgy or grassy 



spot close to more open swamp It was ;not long after I heard it that I 



ascertained that the remarkable hammering noise in the air was made by the 

 Jack-Snipe." 



Mr. W. Meves, who examined a series of eggs of the Jack Snipe, has 

 published a description of them, which I translate as follows * : — " As I have 

 had an opportunity of examining a large number of clutches from TorneS, 

 Lappmark, which were collected at the end of June or even at the beginning of 

 August, I am enabled to give the following description of them : — No. 1 : 4 eggs ; 

 ground-colour greyish-yellow, with greyish-violet underlying markings, large and 

 small leather-brown blotches, spots, and detached streaks, becoming confluent at 

 the larger end; a 1'53 by 1-02 inch, h, c and d 1-51 by 1-06 inch. No. 2: 

 4 eggs; colour like the last, but the blotches smaller; a 1-49 by 1"08 inch, 

 b 1-47 by ITO inch, c 1-47 by 1-OG inch, cl 1-47 by 1-02 inch. No. 3 : 3 eggs; 

 two were dark greenish-grey, the third rusty-yellow ; the blotches large, rather 

 sparsely distributed; all were of equal size, 1*45 by 1'06 inch. No. 4: 3 eggs; 

 greyish-yellow, with irregular markings, distributed in many scrolls and streaks, 

 giving them a close resemblance to eggs of Q^dicnemus crejtitans ; a 1-57 by 1'08 

 inch, b 1'53 by 1-06 inch, c 1'45 by T02 inch. No. 5: 3 eggs; whitish-grey, 

 with ash-grey, light and dark brown blotches and spots, very similar in colour to 

 eggs of Scolopax major ; all of equal size, 1"49 by I'lO inch. No. 6 : 4 eggs ; 

 ground-colour greenish-white, with rather dark, sparsely distributed blotches, 

 having some resemblance to eggs of Totanus glareola, 1"47 by 1-06 inch to 1-49 

 by 1"08 inch. No. 7 : 4 eggs ; somewhat darker than the last; 1'55 to 1"57 by 

 I'OS inch. No. 8 : 4 eggs; ground-colour a pretty, bright, olive-green, 145 by 



* " Ornithologische Beobachtungen im nordwestlichen Eussland," ' Ornis,' II. Jahrgang, 1886, 

 pp. 262, 263. 



