THE COMMON SNIPE 161 



Lubbock and Henry Stevenson, have remarked of these 

 migratory snipe that their abundance and their stay are 

 regulated in great measure by the wind and the 

 mildness of the weather. The best seasons, in Eastern 

 England, at all events, are usually those in which 

 moderate easterly or north-easterly gales occur at 

 intervals during the autumn months. Should too long 

 an interval occur without such wind, the snipe, when 

 they do come, frequently arrive in great numbers, but 

 generally depart again in a few days. Snipe have 

 ever been erratic in their movements, and the keenest 

 sportsmen and closest observers of bird life are often 

 exceedingly puzzled by the sudden appearance or disap- 

 pearance of the snipe in their district. Snipe-shooting, 

 at best, is a lottery. The birds are with us one day and 

 far away on the next clay, and all sportsmen of recent 

 experience are fully aware how ill-balanced are the few 

 really good days by all the blank or moderate days of 

 sport falling to the lot of the snipe-shooter. 



Snipe in good condition weigh from 4 oz. to 4! oz. ; 

 they measure from 10 to n inches in length, and 

 have a wing-stretch from 17 to 19 inches; the length 

 of bill of fully-grown birds is close upon 3 inches. 



THE JACK SNIPE. (Scolopax 



This diminutive snipe often goes by the name Jud- 

 cock amongst sportsmen ; it is merely half the size of 

 the bird last named. The Jack Snipe is a winter visitor 

 to Great Britain, and is usually about the last among 

 the snipe family to reach our shores. It is more unsoci- 

 able in its habits than its larger congener, the Common 

 Snipe, for it is usually found alone or, rather occasionally, 



