THE JACK SNIPE. 



other birds, derive security, perhaps, from feeding 

 in society, as a sentinel appears to be placed by 

 them at such times to give notice of danger ; but 

 our congregating small birds take no such precau- 

 tion : security or mutual protection does not seem 

 to be obtained by it, as the largeness of the flocks 

 invites danger ; and warmth in the winter season 

 it does not afford. For the purposes of migration, 

 such associations are in many respects service- 

 able and consistent ; but in our resident species, 

 considered in its various results, it becomes rather a 

 subject of conjecture, than of explanation. Timid 

 creatures associate commonly upon the apprehen- 

 sion of danger, and, without yielding any mutual 

 support, become only the more obnoxious to evil ; 

 and this snipe, though its habits are the very 

 reverse of connexion with its species, yet affords no 

 clue to direct us to the causes of its unusual habits. 

 These associations of some, and retirement of 

 others, are not the capricious actions of an hour in 

 a few individuals, but so regularly and annually 

 observed in the several species, that they are ma- 

 nifestly appointed provisions of nature, though the 

 object is unknown. This half-snipe, as our sports- 

 men call it, has rather generally been considered 

 by our young shooters as the male of the larger 

 species, or common snipe (scolopax gallinago) ; 

 yet it is difficult to assign any reason for the pre- 

 valence of such an idea, with those who have had 

 many opportunities of observing the dissimilarity 



