186 JACK SNIPE SHOOTING. 



coverts edged with white, and shot "with ochreous, 

 the under j^arts white ; the flanks tinted with a grey- 

 black and brown ; the feet and legs greenish ; and 

 patches, or broad bars, of rich blackish brown about 

 the head, an ochreous yellow separating them. The 

 eggs of the jack snipe are the size of a lark's ; its 

 haunts the same as those of the common snipe. Its 

 geographical range seems to be the mountainous 

 parts of Europe during the process of incubation, and 

 it is a winter visitant in France and central countries. 

 Temminck says, that it breeds in the neighbourhood 

 of Petersburg. Some writers have considered it iden- 

 tical with the Indian species fomid in the Dukheeu. 

 Fermin describes, in his " Histoiy of Surinam," a bird 

 he calls the jack snipe, " as seen by thousands on the 

 sea-shore ; that it must be a bad marksman who does 

 not kill sixty at once with fine shot ; and that he killed 

 eighty-five at a single discharge ; that the flesh is 

 excellent, but the bird so small, that he could eat 

 twenty at a meal." From all we know of this bird, 

 it would never be found congregating in numbers 

 according with this description. Blaine says, Fermin 

 has probably mistaken the ox-birds, which fly in vast 

 flocks, for this sportsman's and epicure's delight. 

 This is the Becassine Soiirde of French writers. 



