THE JACK SNIPE. "3 



particular laws. Snipe suddenly leave their usual haunts for no apparent reason, 

 and as suddenly reappear. The moon affects their movements to some extent, 

 and they are undoubtedly more erratic when that luminary is at the full. Also 

 at such times they often lie better to the gun, partly, perhaps, because they may 

 have been feeding hard all night and are lazy partly, because they may have 

 been travelling all night, and are tired. They appear on the Yorkshire coast in 

 small numbers, about the third week in August, but whether from the inland 

 moors (as seems probable, for I have observed that they generally leave the 

 moors about the end of that month, and are scarce for awhile), or from abroad, 

 I cannot say ; but they are nearly all birds of the year. 



Family S COL OP A CID/F.. 



JACK SNIPE. 



Gallinago gallinula, LlNN. 



VARIOUS reports to the contrary not\yithstanding, the Jack Snipe has never 

 been proved to have bred in our islands, though it is a common enough 

 winter visitor in suitable localities, and has been known to remain in Britain till, 

 or even through, the breeding season. It has not yet been found in the Faeroes 

 or Iceland, but breeds in the northern parts of Scandinavia, Finland, and Russia, 

 becoming decidedly rarer to the east of the Urals. It must, presumably, breed 

 as far east as the Pacific coast of Asia, having been a dozen times or more 

 obtained on migration in Japan, and once in Formosa, but never, as far as I 

 am aware, in any part of China. It winters in the countries bordering the 

 Mediterranean, in Palestine, Persia, Afghanistan, India, Burmah, and Ceylon. 

 Elsewhere in Europe it occurs on migration, remaining as long as the weather 

 keeps fairly open, but in continued frost moving further south. In the milder 

 southern and western parts of our islands it may be called a winter resident 



Vot. V R 



