406 THE SNIPES. 



central part of Sweden, that of Hors-Gok, or horse-cuckoo. 

 The bird is, indeed, believed to have at one period been a 

 veritable steed. 



" Once upon a time," so goes the legend, common in the 

 province of Westmanland, " a peasant was possessed of a 

 horse, which for several days together was led by a servant 

 to a distant pasture, entirely destitute of water, without 

 having been previously allowed to drink. One fine afternoon 

 the master and man proceeded to the aforesaid pasture, 

 which was well fenced, for the purpose of fetching home the 

 horse. But on their arrival there, they found to their great 

 surprise, that he had vanished altogether. Whilst pondering 

 upon the matter, they, to their still greater wonderment, 

 heard a neighing overhead, and the next instant saw the lost 

 steed quietly drinking from a spring in an adjoining field. 

 They hasted to secure the animal ; but so soon as he had 

 drunk his fill, and under their very eyes, he was c trans- 

 mogrified' into a Hors-Gok, and forthwith flew up in the 

 air, where he was afterwards heard neighing, as long as 

 daylight lasted." 



The Jack Snipe (Half-enkel Beckasin, or Half-single 

 Snipe, Sw. ; S. Gallinula, Linn.). This bird which in the 

 south of Sweden is called the Stum Beckasin, or mute 

 snipe was very abundant with us during the autumn, as 

 indeed is the case throughout the country generally ; 

 but where it passes the summer months has always been a 

 mystery to me. Swedish naturalists tell us it nests in various 

 parts of the peninsula ; but strange to say I and others, 

 who have been on the look-out, never met with it either 

 in Sweden, Norway, or Lapland, during that season. My 

 notion is that, even admitting some to breed in Scandi- 



