THE JACK-SNIPE. 221 



primary-coverts, the secondaries pale and more ashy at the 

 tips, the long inner ones mottled like the scapulars ; tail-feathers 

 pointed, uniform dusky-brown, with pale sandy-buff margins ; 

 crown of head and nape black, scarcely spotted with rufous, 

 and bordered by a broad superciliary band of sandy-buff, the 

 lores and feathers round the eye being blackish ; cheeks and 

 ear-coverts dull white, spotted with black, and having a black 

 line along the upper cheeks ; chin and upper-throat white ; 

 sides of neck and hind-neck earthy-brown, slightly mottled 

 with blackish, and separating the head from the back ; lower 

 throat and fore-neck pale rufous-brown, spotted and streaked 

 with black, the sides of the breast and flanks being similarly 

 marked; breast, abdomen, and under tail-coverts pure white; 

 the latter with a few dusky streaks ; under wing-coverts ashy- 

 whitish, with dusky bases ; axillaries pure white ; lower primary- 

 coverts and quill-lining dull ashy. Total length, 7-5 inches; 

 culmen i'6; wing, 4*35; tail, 1-9; tarsus, 0*9. 



Adult Female. Similar to the male. Total length, 7*5 inches ; 

 culmen, r6 ; wing, 4-1 ; tail, 1-7 ; tarsus, 0-95. 



Winter Plumage. Scarcely to be distinguished from the sum- 

 mer plumage, except by the greater amount of blackish mott- 

 ling, the bars on the hinder neck, and the generally more 

 rufescent colour. The pale bands on the back are brighter, 

 but soon fade with exposure and wear to the paler tints of the 

 spring and summer dress. 



Range in Great Britain. The Jack-Snipe is a regular visitant in 

 winter, arriving in October or late in September, and leaving 

 again in March and April. No instance of its breeding within 

 the limits of the United Kingdom has yet been authenticated. 



Range outside the British Islands. The present species breeds 

 in the Arctic Regions from the Dovrefjeld and the tundras of 

 Lapland, above the limits of forest-growth ; and as it has been 

 met with in Eastern Siberia, where Middendorf found it on the 

 Boganida, south of the Taimyr Peninsula in 70 N. lat, Mr. 

 Seebohm is probably right in supposing that it nests in the 

 Arctic Regions from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He did not, 

 however, find it breeding either on the Petchora or in the 

 Yen-e-sai Valley. In winter it passes in numbers to the Medi- 



