336 BIRDS, OF NORFOLK. 



their disgust at the* storm. Not so the jack ; the lee- 

 side of a tuft of grass, or a small piece of turf, affords 

 him shelter, and there he ensconces himself with philo- 

 sophic patience." When flushed the jack snipe emits 

 no cry, but with a somewhat slow though tortuous flight 

 mounts up gradually for a short distance, and then 

 abruptly pitches down into any -convenient shelter. The 

 reluctance of the jack to take wing, whether on a marsh 

 or by the sedgy margin of a river or drain, is well 

 known, and the bird has acquired, from its apparent 

 indifference to the sound of approaching footsteps or 

 the report of firearms, the French name of Becassine 

 sourde; but as the hare, though conscious of danger, 

 will, hoping to escape detection, crouch down in her 

 form rather than trust to her swiftness of foot, so 

 this species, I imagine, relies ibr safety in concealment, 

 and rises only when compelled to do so. It is a very 

 usual thing on the broads, when rowing round the 

 edges of the reed-beds looking for snipes on the mown 

 "hoves," to get two or three shots at the " whole" snipes 

 as they twist over the reeds, and then, on sending a dog 

 on to the treacherous soil, to flush one or two jacks that 

 would not otherwise have shown themselves. In like 

 manner, when carefully looking a marsh for the second 

 time in the day a staunch dog will usually find one or 

 more jacks that had been passed over before ; and even 

 a bird that has been flushed and escaped to a distance, 

 will not unfrequently be found in an hour or two in its 

 former haunt. I remember on the 24th of October, 

 1859, during a somewhat early frost, finding five couples 

 and a half of jack snipes in one corner of a marsh, 

 which, judging from the (e borings " all over the soil, 

 was a most attractive spot. These birds rose one at a 

 time, as the marshman and myself quartered the ground 

 carefully, and those that I missed or had no chance 

 of shooting at dropped again within twenty yards of 



