484 Manual of the Game Birds of India. 



on the other. Whenever a bird was put 

 off its eggs, the man who saw it was to 

 pass on the word, and the whole Hne 

 was to stand whilst 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 un- 

 doubted parent of the nest of eggs ! . . . 

 In the course of the day and night I 

 found three more nests, and examined 

 the birds of each. . . . 



"The nest of the 17th, and the four of 

 the 1 8th 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 



