298 THE GAME BIRDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family CHAKADRIID.E. Genus LIMNOCRYPTES. 



Subfamily 



JACK SNIPE. 



LIMNOCKYPTES GALLINULA (Lmntciis) . 

 PLATE XXXI. 



Scolopax gallinula, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 244 (1766) ; Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 380 

 (1852) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 247 (1885) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Non- 

 indig. Brit. B. p. 280 (1894) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. pt. xxx. (1895) ; Seebohm, 

 Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. p. 154, pi. 41 (1896). 



Gallinago gallinula (Linn.), Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 653, pi. 544 (1877) ; Yarrell, 

 Brit. B. ed. 4, iii. p. 351 (1883). 



Limnocryptes gallinula (Linn.), Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iii. p. 220 (1896) ; Sharpe, 

 Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 665 (1896). 



Geographical distribution. British: The Jack Snipe is a common 

 winter visitor locally distributed throughout the British Islands, including the 

 Orkneys, the Shetlands, and the Hebrides. Owing to the fact of odd birds having 

 been met with in early summer, it has been surmised that the Jack Snipe may 

 occasionally breed within our limits, but there is no decided evidence whatever 

 that such is ever the case. Foreign : Northern Palaearctic region ; southern 

 Palsearctic region and Oriental region in winter. It breeds locally above the 

 limits of forest growth, on the Dovrefjeld and the tundras of Lapland, and in 

 Western Kussia as far north as St. Petersburg. In Asia it appears to breed as 

 far north as lat. 70, and about as far south as lat. 60 ; eastwards possibly to the 

 Pacific. It passes Europe, south of the above limits, on migration, and winters 

 in the basin of the Mediterranean, in North Africa as far south as the Great 

 Desert, and is said to penetrate dow^n the Nile Valley to Abyssinia. The birds 

 breeding in Asia are known to pass South-west Siberia, Turkestan, and less 

 frequently China and Japan on migration ; and probably cross other central 

 districts, though as yet undetected, and winter in Persia, Afghanistan, India, 

 Ceylon, and Burmah. 



Allied forms. None of sufficient propinquity to call for notice. 



Habits. A few Jack Snipes make their appearance in our Islands during 

 the latter half of September, but the great bulk of the birds arrive in October 

 and the beginning of November. The return migration begins in March and 



