160 REMIN^ISCEXCES OF A SPORTSMAN. 



Fen his surprise tliat this mode of taking them had not 

 been resorted to. Tlie fen man inquired what sort of a 

 net was to be used, and was told a lark net would 

 answer the purpose of a trial. This he soon borrowed, 

 and the first night of his making the experiment caught 

 as many snipes as filled a small hamper. The practice 

 soon became general and the netted found so much 

 better than the shot birds that the latter could scarcely 

 find a purchaser in the market. The price of snipes at 

 Cambridge has increased to a shilling and sometimes 

 eighteen pence. 



The haunts and food of the jack snipe or judcock are 

 similar to those of the full snipe, but the bird is more 

 rare, although Mr. St. John mentions that he once killed 

 in a couple of hours eight brace of jack snipes, all of 

 which he found in a small rushy pool and in the ad- 

 joining ditch. They lie so extremely close that it is 

 rather difficult to make them rise, and their flights are 

 always short and not so rapid as those of the other species. 

 The jack snipe is about half the size of the former and 

 weighs about two ounces. The length is eight inches 

 and a half, the bill one and a half inches long and black, 

 crown of the head black tinged with rust colour ; a black 

 streak divides the head lengthwise from the base of the 

 bill to the nape of the neck ; over each eye a yellow streak 

 passes to the hinder part of the head ; the neck varies 

 with white, brown, and pale red. Scapulars narrow, long, 

 brown, and margined with yellow; the rump of a glossy 

 bluish purple ; belly and vent white ; the greater quill 

 feathers dusky ; tail brown with tawny edges ; the tail 

 consists of twelve pointed feathers; the legs of a greenish 

 colour. The jack snipes breed in our marshes ; the eggs 

 are of the same colour as the common snipe, but smaller ; 



