256 GALLINAGO GALLINULA. 
a very long time. It was some hours after this that Herr Salomon 
called to me that he had found a nest, and just before I had seen the 
bird fly from it and settle, but at the distance I was I could only see 
that it was not white over the tal—Herr Salomon saw that it was 
striped on the back. Walking up I at once saw that the eggs were 
such as a Jack Snipe might lay, and they reminded me of an egg 
Mr. Alfred Newton had from Holland*. Going immediately to the 
place where I had seen the bird drop, I put it up, and it shortly 
settled again, dropping suddenly among the herbage as a Jack Snipe 
would, and I had no doubt it was that bird. Whenever it settled it 
ran a few feet and remained quite concealed. At last I fired at 
it as it rose, and to my great delight I picked up a veritable Jack 
Snipe. Returning leisurely to Herr Salomon, he said to me ‘‘ A 
common bird?” and I answered “ Very common” ; but immediately 
afterwards I congratulated him on finding a previously unknown egg, 
such a great desideratum to English collectors. ‘The nest of this and 
of those I found subsequently was very simple. One that I brought 
away was of grass in short bits, old fragments of Hquisetum, and last 
year’s leaves of dwarf birch, which grows so abundantly over these 
morasses. I was not able to ascertain with precision whether the 
clicking and neighing which I frequently heard in the course of this 
and the preceding days came from the Jack Snipe or the Common 
_ Snipe, to which it appeared to belong. I have not yet had positive 
proof of the existence of the latter bird here, but I am pretty sure 
that one at least got up before me during the day. 
§ 4178. Mour.—Karto-uoma, 18 June, 1853. “J. W. shot 
the bird.” 
This nest was found by one of the boys not long after the last. 
The bird was on the nest. I marked the place and retired. In 
about an hour’s time, taking my lines by one or two dwarf trees, 
I walked, in company with Ludwig, in the exact direction of the 
nest. I did not know to a foot or two where it was, when suddenly 
the bird rose under my feet. Standing perfectly still I shot it, and 
then looked downwards, when I found that my left foot was only 
six inches from the nest, and must have been planted there, or 
uearly so, before the bird flew up. I picked up the bird, which, as 
* {I cannot remember this particular egg, but it could hardly have been a 
Jack Snipe’s.— Ep. ] 
