SNIPE SHOOTING. • j95 



Snipe, is described as about four ounces in weight, and nearly 

 ^twelve inches in length. The bill is three inches long, and of a 

 dusky colour : and in some individual cases, the base is light, flat- 

 tish, and rough at the ends ; the irides dusky. The crown of the 

 head is black, with a longitudinal light rufous line down the middle ; 

 and another line passes from the base of the upper mandible of the 

 same colour on each side over the eyes. Between the bill and the 

 eye there is a dusky line. The throat is white ; and the cheeks, 

 neck, and upper breast, are mottled with black and light colom-ed 

 patches. The back and scapulars are black, barred with brown, 

 and striped with yellowish buff-coloured longitudinal lines. The 

 quills are black ; the first edged with white, and the secondaries 

 are tipped with the same ; and those next the body are, mth their 

 coverts, striated and barred with an iron-gray colour. The lower 

 breast and belly are white; upper tail coverts brown, barred with 

 black. The tail consists of fourteen black feathers, barred and 

 spotted with dull orange red towards the end, and with a narrow 

 bar of black near the tip, where it is of a pale rufous colour. The 

 legs vary ; in some they are dusky, or lead-coloured, and in others 

 black. 



The Jack Snipe {Scolopax Gallinula, Limi.). Tliis species is 

 commonly described as about half the size of the common snipe, 

 and weighs about two ounces. Its length is about two inches and 

 a half. The bill is nearly two inches long, of a lead colour, black 

 at the point, and the upper mandible_ of a light colour, and the 

 irides black. The crown of the head is black, and slightly edged 

 with rust colour, bordered on each side with a yellowish streak, 

 beneath which is a dusky one ; and close above the eye is another 

 streak of a light colour. From the bill to the eye is a dusky stroke. 

 The black is varied with ferruginous brown, and dusky. The back, 

 rump, and scapulars are of a fine, glossy, changeable green and 

 purple, the exterior webs of the latter deep buff colour, forming the 

 two conspicuous lines from the shoulder to the tail. The quills are 

 dusky, and so likemse are the wing-coverts, bordered vdth brown. 

 The lower breast, and all beneath, is white. The tail is cuneiform, 

 consisting of twelve pointed dusky feathers, dashed more or less 

 with an iron-gray. The legs are of a greenish hue. The jack snipe 

 comes latter in the season than the common snipe, and no instances 

 are known of its ever having remained in this country during the 

 breeding season. It is very common in most countries of Europe, 

 as well as in the various states of North America. 



We find from the accounts of travellers and naturalists that the 

 common snipe is almost universally distributed tln^oughout the 

 globe. In all the old countries in Europe, they are _ tolerably- 

 abundant ; and in Africa, Asia, and the islands of the Indian ocean, 

 they are likewise to be found. In the American continent they are 

 very numerous, especially in the states of North and South 

 Carolina. In Egypt they are found in the rice-fields or plantations 

 in such swarms, that it is no uncommon achievement for a man to 



