SNIPE. 



In Britain the jack snipe takes its departure from 

 the marshes in the low and warm parts of the 

 country, near the shores, as early as March, or even 

 as February, according to the season. Now, even 

 the latest of those times is not exactly the one at 

 which a bird should set out from Britain to the polar 

 regions, because there is little for a bird there until 

 June, or May at the earliest. But the objection does 

 not hold in the case of a bird moving by stage and 

 stage from the margins of the sea to the marshy 

 moors in such a country as Britain. There is another 

 consideration : if the jack snipes of this country went 

 off to the far north, we might expect them in consi- 

 derable numbers in the Orkney and Shetland isles ; 

 but this is not the case. They are mentioned as 

 occurring in some of the Orkneys, but they are 

 described as being rather rare birds, much more so 

 than in places farther to the south. The case would 

 be very different if the birds, en masse, passed over 

 the latitude of these islands, for migratory birds, as 

 might be expected, never omit halting to rest and 

 feed on any islands that may be in the line of their 

 march. 



The grand foundation of the difficulty appears to 

 lie in the retiring habits of these snipes. In the dis- 

 trict where, as we have mentioned, we saw them so 

 often, we never by any chance saw one on the wing, 

 or in any other way than by the direct invasion of 

 the tangled pools in which they find convenient nest- 

 ing places, and an abundant supply of food ; and 

 there is no doubt that any one, who chances to look 

 for them in such places during the breeding season, 

 will find them in abundance, though not congregated 

 in the same place ; for under all circumstances, and 

 at all seasons of the year, they are solitary and retir- 

 ing birds, not to be " flushed," or raised from their 

 hiding places, without very considerable effort, and 

 also knowledge of the ground. The places in which 

 .these snipes are found, in the breeding season, are of 

 the most difficult character; that is, where no preda- 

 tory quadruped can go, and where the ordinary birds 

 of prey cannot easily find them, in consequence of 

 the closeness of the cover. But these, and many of 

 the other ground birds which breed in the marshes, 

 find destroyers of their eggs that would not be sus- 

 pected, in those gulls which breed in the same places. 

 The place of which the gulls take possession is safe 

 in this way ; for the gulls inhabit closely in large 

 societies, and no other bird will or can breed in the 

 same locality. But they prowl about in the neigh- 

 bourhood, and are terrible robbers of nests. 



The Jack-snipe is one of the prettiest of all our 

 marsh birds ; and when it whisks about among the 

 tall grass and equisetums, the fine gloss on the back, 

 and the two lateral stripes give it a most lively ap- 

 pearance. The nest is very difficult to find, as it is 

 always so placed as that the bird can glide to some 

 distance from it before it disturbs the grass. To seek 

 for either nest or bird is a hopeless matter ; and at the 

 pools of which they inhabit the margins, one must 

 take the chance of finding them without an actual 

 beating of the course. 



Though these birds resort to the pools on the ele- 

 vated moors, they are not found in the higher moun- 

 tain bogs ; and if there is cover enough they keep 

 their place, though the labours of the agriculturist 

 and the grazier are going on around them. But a 

 country favourable for them is most unfavourable for 

 agriculture, as the tangled bogs, which they frequent, 



occasion blights in the latter part of the spring and 

 early in the autumn ; and thus where snipes nestle, 

 unless in places wholly abandoned to wild nature, 

 there is a strong admonition to man to commence 

 draining; and the drainage of those little bogs which 

 spot the fields, in many of the farming districts that 

 have been neglected, is doubly profitable the soil 

 is taken away, and it furnishes a rich dressing for 

 the thin and light lands. 



As one might suppose, from the marshy nature of 

 great part of the surface, snipes are very plentiful in 

 North America. They do not differ greatly from the 

 snipes of Europe, but they are not exactly the same ; 

 no native animal of America is exactly the same as 

 the analogous one of the eastern continent, and man 

 himself does not appear to be an exception to the 

 general rule. Our limits will not admit of a full 

 enumeration of even the known snipes of America, 

 but we shall notice one or two. 



AMERICAN WOODCOCK (S. rubicola). In its form 

 and manners, this has a considerable resemblance to 

 the woodcock of Europe, but it is smaller in size and 

 differently coloured. The under parts are rusty red, 

 instead of yellowish white with dusky lines; and the 

 female weighs half a pound, and the male two or three 

 ounces less. It is a migrant, wintering in the south- 

 ern parts, and appearing in the central states about 

 the beginning of March. It does not appear that 

 they proceed to the very extreme north, indeed they 

 cannot be expected beyond the woods and brushes, 

 and there are abundance of these to the northward of 

 the great lakes, for sheltering all the woodcocks in 

 the world. 



The male of this species is ten inches long, and 

 sixteen in the stretch of the wings ; and the female is 

 twelve long, and eighteen in extent. The upper 

 mandible of the bill is reddish brown, with the en- 

 larged knob or nail black ; and it is about two inches 

 and a half in length, and projects a tenth of an inch 

 beyond the truncated tip of the lower one. Both 

 mandibles are grooved. The front, a streak over the 

 eye, and all the under parts of the body, are tawny 

 red, the sides of the neck ash colour. The top of 

 the head black, with three bands of brownish white. 

 The back and scapulars deep black, with narrow rust 

 coloured margins to the feathers ; but these parts 

 pass into bluish white at the edges ; and all the back 

 lias zig-zag lines of black on the lighter parts. The 

 quills are brown, and the insides of the wings reddish 

 rust colour. The tail feathers are black, with a row 

 of reddish brown spots along the outer web of each, 

 and the tips narrow and of a pale drab colour. The 

 under side of the tail-feathers is silvery white. The 

 legs and feet are flesh colour ; and the eyes, which 

 are situated much further back than in the European 

 woodcock, are very prominent, and of a deep black 

 colour. The weight is generally rather less than six 

 ounces. In the female, the colour on the back is of 

 a paler tint, and there are dusky bars on the under 

 sides of the wings. These differences in colour, to- 

 gether with the great disparity in size, has occasioned 

 these birds to be considered as two distinct species. 



Woodcocks breed earlier in the season in America 

 than they do in Europe. Wilson mentions that nests 

 with eggs have been found in February, but that the 

 usual time is early in April. In consequence of this the 

 birds are on the ground, and sporting commences as 

 earl v as July, through which month and the two follow- 

 ing ones,th"e best season for them continues. In Britain 



