310 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE 



in they were not driven there by stress of weather. Yet they may 

 have merely been taking cover, and not feeding there, just as the 

 woodcock rests remote from its food source. Seebohm, who wrote on 

 a first-hand acquaintance with this bird in Siberia, describes it as " a 

 bird of the swamps," and prefers such as have open places of mud 

 or peat, or even sand. 



Apart from the noises already described as a part of the 

 courtship performance, he never heard this bird utter any other 

 call or alarm-note. Like the jack-snipe, it sits close when alarmed, 

 allowing itself to be almost trodden upon before taking flight, when 

 it rises with a whir of wings, like that of a grouse, but not so loud. 

 It is a much easier bird to shoot, he tells us, than the common-snipe, 

 flying much slower and straighter; while on the ground "it is a 

 very comical-looking object ; plump, short-legged, it shuffles about, 

 half-walking, half-running : its bill always depressed, and, however 

 intent it may be on feeding, it is ever on the watch for danger, and 

 always tries to keep behind a bunch of rushes or a clump of sedge. 

 It hides in the long coarse grass on the banks of rivers and lakes 

 during the day, and comes out on the open in the evening if there be 

 any evening where it happens to live to feed on worms and various 

 small insects. 



It is possible that this bird is not seldom passed over in mistake 

 for large examples of the common-snipe, but it may always be dis- 

 tinguished therefrom by the white feathers in the tail, the more 

 heavily barred flanks, and the presence of 16 tail feathers in place 

 of 14. 



The jack-snipe, which comes to us in October with the woodcock, 

 differs but little in its habits from its larger relative, the " full "-snipe. 

 It is quite as fond of marshes, and is, perhaps, remarks Seebohm, more 

 often seen on the coast. It is at all times solitary, never associating 

 in bands, or " wisps," after the fashion of the full-snipe. It sits quite 

 as close as its larger relative when striving to avoid detection, but 

 when finally flushed it rarely utters a note on rising. On the wing its 



