15 



bourhood seems deserted ; but as winter advances these birds are 

 again dispersed over the country in the same manner as the Jack 

 Snipes, and I am inclined to think that, like them, those then 

 found come from a distance. 



I have seen in The Field recently the remarks about the eggs 

 of the Jack Snipe. My impression on reading them was that it 

 was a Quail's nest that was found. Has the Jack Snipe ever 

 really been detected breeding in England? All nests said to 

 have been of it appear to have been those of the Dunlin. Why 

 the Jack Snipe does not breed in England, while the common 

 one does so commonly, is one of the mysteries we cannot fathom. 

 So far as we know, it seems to be a less numerous species, and 

 to have a more limited range than the Common Snipe. It would 

 be quite impossible for the Jack Snipe to cover nine eggs of the 

 size it lays ; indeed, it is only by the singular way they are 

 placed in the nest that it can cover its four. 



With respect to the Woodcocks of the old and new worlds, 

 you have the two species totally distinct, and their districts dis- 

 tinct ; each species is as typical as the other, and each as far 

 removed from any other genus or species. I saw in the Exhi- 

 bition of 1861 a photograph of a European Woodcock which had 

 been found dead (if I remember right) on the Labrador coast ; 

 and it was stated to be the only instance of its occurrence in 

 America. That some species, as the three Divers, are the same 

 on both continents, and others, as the Woodcocks, though totally 

 distinct, yet nearly allied, and apparently taking the place of 

 each other, is very singular. The only three known species of 

 Divers appear to be equally common in the northern regions, on 

 the continents of both the old and new worlds, and to have simi- 

 lar habits ; each of the species is as typical of the genus as the 

 others, and none of them appears to be more nearly allied to any 

 other genus than the others ; and though the three species are 

 closely allied to each other, how wide is the distance, compara- 

 tively speaking, between them and any other genus. In fact, 

 it is not easy to connect any other bird with them. In many 

 respects how much they differ from the Guillemots and even the 

 Grebes. 



