Minor British Game Birds. 159 



known, it will doubtless be recorded as occurring 

 more frequently than it has been in the past. 

 As has been suggested, it is most probable 

 that in a big bag of snipe the rarer species may 

 frequently have been overlooked, especially as 

 the common snipe varies in size, perhaps more 

 than any other bird. 



The jack snipe is the smallest British species, 

 and is only a winter visitant to this country. It 

 breeds upon the tundras of the far north, and 

 arrives here late in September. Unlike its 

 congeners, it is usually seen singly, and it procures 

 its food in the boggiest situations. It feeds much 

 at dusk both morning and evening, and when 

 satisfied retires a short distance upland, where 

 among dry grass tufts it rests during the day. Its 

 food consists of worms and other soft-bodied 

 creatures ; under favourable conditions it lays 

 on much fat, and is considered a delicacy at table. 

 Upon its first coming it makes for wet meadows, 

 plashy uplands, and sea-coast tracts, although 

 the weather regulates the altitude at which the 

 bird is found. If severe frost sets in it leaves 

 the hill-tarns for lower land, and seeks the 

 protection of grass and rushes by the margins 

 of streams. Open weather, however, soon 

 drives it from the valleys. The jack snipe is 

 very local in its likes, and will return again and 

 again to the same spot ; in ordinary seasons its 

 numbers are about equal to those of the common 



