JACK SNIPE — DUNLIN. 155 



arrival of which I have a note is the 15th September, in 1882, 

 when one was shot on the Cherwell, near Bodicote. In spring 

 I once saw one near Adderbury on the 15th March, in 1879, 

 and when Otter hunting near Heyford, as late as the 36th 

 Aprilj in 1875, the hounds flushed a Jack Snipe which was 

 seen by Mr. A. H. Cocks. In October^ 1880, when both 

 Jacks and ' full ' Snipe were unusually numerous, we bagged 

 nine in one meadow during the first fortnight, but generally 

 it is rather a scarce bird. Occasionally specimens are picked 

 up under the telegraph wu*es, against which they have struck 

 in the night, and, solitary as the Judcock usually is, two, 

 which were picked up, lying together under the wires, on the 

 1 8th November, 1885, were apparently flying in close com- 

 pany. One of these birds scaled fully three ounces, which is 

 the heaviest I ever weighed. 



The Jack Snipe has not been proved to breed anywhere in 

 Great Britain, but specimens have been seen and obtained in 

 this county in summer. One was picked up on the railway at 

 Oxford in August, 1883 (H. A. Macpherson, J/iS'.), and another 

 near Banbury at the end of July, 1883 ; the latter was in a 

 very emaciated condition, and was probably an injured bird 

 unable to migrate. Mr. W. Warde Fowler mentions that in 

 the summer of 1884, a Jack Snipe was several times flushed 

 by a good observer, who knew the bird well, in the Parks by 

 the Cherwell at Oxford. {A Year with the Birds, p. 13.) 



THE DUNLIN. \ j4 



Tringa alphia. 

 The Dunlin, a common coast bird, is an occasional visitor 

 to Mid-Oxon and the Thames district. The Messrs. Matthews 

 stated in their list that it was a common winter visitor, oc- 

 casionally met with after it had partly assumed its summer 

 plumage, but at the present day it appears less frequently. 

 On the 35th April, 1887, Mr. A. H. Macpherson saw forty or 

 fifty on Port Meadow, some of them being in full breeding 



