44 scoLOPAcnm 



within six inches of it. The nest found on the 17th of 

 June, and the four of the 18th of June, were all alike in 

 structure, made loosely of little pieces of grass and equi- 

 setum not at all woven together, with a few old leaves of 

 the dwarf birch, placed in a dry sedgy or grassy spot close 

 to more open swamp. The Jack Snipe weighs about two 

 ounces ; its four eggs weigh an ounce and a half." There 

 are three beautifully figured in Mr. Hewitson's work. 

 Alfred Newton, Esq. has very kindly lent me two draw- 

 ings of the young of the Jack Snipe in different stages of 

 their growth. They closely resemble the young of the 

 Common Snipe already figured, but the bill is shorter, and 

 higher and broader at the base. M. Temminck, in the 

 fourth part of his Manual, mentions that this bird breeds 

 in considerable numbers in the environs of St. Peters- 

 burgh ; and Pennant says it visits Siberia. Mr. Hoy is 

 said to have found the nests and eggs of the Jack Snipe 

 at Falconswaerd, in North Brabant. It is a winter visitor 

 only to France, Provence, and Italy. It is found in Sicily 

 during winter, and at Malta, in March and October. Mr. 

 Strickland mentions that it is abundant at Smyrna in the 

 same season ; the Russian naturalists found it in the vici- 

 nity of the Caucasus. Colonel Sykes includes it in his 

 Birds of the Dukhun, and Mr. Blyth has obtained it in 

 the vicinity of Calcutta. 



The beak is dark brown at the point, pale reddish brown 

 at the base ; irides dark brown ; from the beak to the eye 

 a dark brown streak ; over that, over the eye and over the 

 ear-coverts a broad pale brown streak, with a narrow 

 darker one along the middle line of the posterior part; 

 forehead and top of the head rich dark brown, not divided 

 along the middle by a pale brown streak, as in the Great 

 Snipe and Common Snipe ; back of the neck greyish brown, 

 varied with dusky brown ; back rich dark brown ; inter- 



