338 BIRDS OF NORFOLK. 



snipes, jacks never rise in " wisps," but, as shown by 

 the number I found myself, all gathered together 

 within a very small space, they certainly congregate on 

 the ground. As a further proof, also, of the inde- 

 pendent action of this species, I could give many 

 instances of their being found in numbers, almost 

 exceeding the largest flights of the " whole " snipes ; at 

 times, also, when not a single bird of the larger species 

 has been seen in the day. Yet, as a rule, perhaps 

 Thompson's* estimate is not far wrong that jacks are 

 " in the proportion of about one fourth of the common 

 species." Mr. Lubbock states that " in October, 1824, 

 in two days' shooting, thirty-seven snipes were killed 

 by a friend, only five of which were " whole " snipes, 

 and that later in the same month nineteen jack snipes 

 were shot in one morning, and only one opportunity 

 afforded of firing at a "whole" bird. When thus 

 abundant it is evident that any one accustomed to the 

 flight of a jack snipe will make a much larger bag than 

 it would be possible to do with the larger species, which, 

 rising several at a time and not waiting to be (C walked 

 up," have the chances much in their favour. About the 

 year 1845, Mr. Rising, of Horsey, with a friend, killed 

 in his own marshes thirty-five couples of jack snipes. 

 His companion, however, did not arrive till about eleven 

 o'clock, by which time Mr. Rising had bagged ten 

 couples and a shorteared owl, missing only one or two 

 shots. Even more might have been killed had they 

 continued shooting. On two or three other occasions 

 he has met with similar extraordinary flights of jacks, 

 and remembers when a very young sportsman, shooting 

 away a pound of powder and cleaning his gun in the 



* See Thompson's " Birds of Ireland " (vol. ii. p. 278) for the 

 returns of a snipe-shooter's bag, in the nighbourhood of Belfast, 

 from 1835 to 1842 inclusive. In the north of Ireland he considers 

 that jack snipes have greatly increased of late years. 



