886 SNIPE 
The third species of which any details can here be given is the 
Jack,! or Half-Snipe, S. gallinula, one of the smallest and most 
beautifully coloured of the group. Without being so numerous as the 
common or full Snipe, it is of frequent occurrence in Great Britain 
from September to April (and occasionally both earlier and later) ; 
but it breeds only, so far as is known, in northern Scandinavia and 
Russia; and the first trustworthy information of that subject was 
obtained by Wolley in June 1853, when he found several of its nests 
near Muonioniska in Lapland.? Instead of rising wildly as do most 
of its allies, it generally lies so close as to let itself be almost trodden 
upon, and then takes wing silently, to alight at a short distance (if 
it escape the gin), and to return to the same place on the morrow. 
In the breeding-season, however, it is as noisy and conspicuous as 
its larger brethren while executing its aerial evolutions. 
Asa group the Snipes are in several respects highly specialized, | 
but here there is only 
space to mention the 
sensitiveness of the 
bill, which, though to 
some extent notice- 
able in many SAND- 
PIPERS is in Snipes 
carried to an extreme 
by a number of filaments, belonging to the fifth pair of nerves, 
which run almost to the tip, and open immediately under the soft 
cuticle in a series of cells that give this portion of the surface of 
the premaxillaries, when exposed, a honeycomb-like appearance. 
Thus the bill becomes a most delicate organ of sensation, and by 
its means the bird, while probing for food, is at once able to dis- 
tinguish the nature of the objects it encounters, though these are 
wholly out of sight. So far as is known, the sternum of all the 
Snipes, except the Jack-Snipe, departs from the normal Limicoline 
formation, a fact which tends to justify the removal of that species 
to a separate genus, Limnocryptes. 
The so-called Painted Snipes, forming the genus Lostratula, or 
I?thynchexa, demand a few words. Three species are now admitted, 
natives respectively of South America, Africa and southern Asia, 
BILu or Snxrpé from the side and beneath. 
(After Swainson.) 
? Though this word is clearly not intended as a nickname, such as is the 
prefix which custom has applied to many birds, one can only guess at its origin 
or meaning. It may be, as in Jackass, an indication of sex, for it is a popular 
belief that the Jack-Snipe is the male of the common species ; or, again, it may 
refer to the comparatively small size of the bird, as the ‘‘ jack” in the game of 
bowls is the smallest of the bowls used, and as fishermen call the smaller Pikes 
Jacks. Possibly this may account for Curlew-Jack as a name of the WHIMBREL. 
* His account was published by Hewitson in May 1855 (Eygs Br. Birds, ed. 
3, ll. pp. 856-358). 
