THE JACK SNIPE 
In its habits generally the bird closely resembles its 
larger ally the Common Snipe, but it is even more solitary. 
It migrates at night, and obtains most of its food under 
the cover of darkness. Rarely indeed is it observed 
active during the daytime, consequently its movements 
are difficult to watch. It is usually flushed quite un- 
expectedly at one’s feet, darting off in an erratic, un- 
steady way at first, but finally settling down into a steadier 
flight, and seldom goes very far from its favourite haunt, 
returning thereto at the first possible opportunity. 
It is a very silent bird whilst with us, and seldom or never 
makes a sound when rising, not even the whirr of its 
wings being distinctive. Its food consists chiefly of 
worms, insects and larve, small seeds and tender shoots 
of vegetation during winter, but whilst absent from us 
crustaceans and mollusks are eaten. As many readers 
may be aware, the Jack Snipe does not breed anywhere 
in the British Islands, and but little has been recorded 
of its habits during the nesting season. It selects some 
dry spot in the Arctic swamps and makes a slight nest 
on the ground, a mere hollow lined with a few scraps 
of withered herbage. In this the female lays four large, 
handsome eggs, buff or olive in ground colour, blotched 
and spotted with rich brown, paler brown, and grey, 
and sometimes streaked here and there with darker 
brown. One brood only is reared in the season, the 
eggs being laid late in June. ‘The southern migration 
commences soon after the young are strong enough 
to fly. 
Although it is a very much smaller bird, the Jack Snipe 
closely resembles the Common Snipe in general appear- 
ance. Ifexamined minutely the Jack Snipe will be found 
to have no pale stripe on the crown, the feathers of the 
mantle are purple, the inner webs of the scapulars are 
green, and the inner webs of the innermost secondaries 
are uniform brown; the tail is nearly uniform brown 
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