278 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE 



JACK-SNIPE [Gallinago gallinula (Linnaeus). Half -snipe. French, 

 becassine sourde ; German, kleine Sumpfschnepfe ; Italian, frullino]. 



1. Description. The jack-snipe may readily be distinguished from the 

 common-snipe, apart from its much smaller size, by the absence of the median line 

 of buff in the crown, the metallic purple of the rump, and the vivid metallic green 

 gloss on the interscapulars. The sexes are alike, and there is no seasonal change 

 of coloration. (PI. 115.) Length 7'5 in. [179*07 mm.]. The centre of the crown is 

 black, with an irregular, inconspicuous band of dark chestnut down the centre, 

 which is soon lost by abrasion. There is a broad superciliary stripe of dark buff 

 extending forwards to the beak. The lores are black, and there is a dusky malar 

 stripe. The hind-neck is reddish, mottled with black. The back is marked by 

 an inner sub-median stripe of ochreous buff, and an outer, less conspicuous stripe 

 of the same hue, formed by the outermost of the interscapulars and by the outer 

 scapulars. The interscapular stripe is formed by the outer and inner webs respec- 

 tively of alternate feathers. The dark portions of the interscapulars have an intense 

 metallic green gloss, relieved by one or more elongated spots of dark chestnut. 

 The outer scapulars are of a rich chestnut barred with black, and with the outer 

 webs rich buff, forming the lower end of the outermost longitudinal stripe. The 

 minor coverts are tipped with buff and white. The remiges are dark grey; and 

 the rectrices are dark grey edged with buff, the central feathers long, pointed, and 

 black, broadly margined with ochreous buff : the outermost upper tail-coverts are 

 longitudinally striped with yellow, continuing the line of the submedian dorsal 

 stripes. The fore-neck and fore-breast and flank are dull white, obscurely striated 

 with dark brown, and the under tail-coverts are white. The female is slightly 

 larger and duller than the male. The juvenile plumage differs from the adult in 

 lacking the metallic gloss. The young in down scarcely differ from those of the 

 common-snipe, [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. The jack-snipe is only a winter visitor to the British 

 Isles, but on the Continent it breeds on the high fjelds of Scandinavian Lapland, 

 and also in Northern Finland south to lat. 64 according to Buturlin, and on the 

 tundra of North Russia. In Russia it ranges south, according to the same writer, 

 to the governments of Perm, Kazan, Vologda, Jaroslav, Vladimir, Orel, Tula, Tver, 

 and the Baltic provinces, and has bred in N. Poland. It is also stated to have nested 

 in various localities in N. Germany and in the Alps, but in most cases on very in- 

 adequate evidence. In Asiatic Russia it ranges across Siberia to the tundras of 



