160 Poachers and Poaching. 



snipe. It lies well to the gun, often until almost 

 trodden on, and birds have been known to have 

 been picked up from before the nose of a dog. 

 It is more easily killed than any of its congeners, 

 for although it flies in a zig-zag manner it invari- 

 ably rises right from the feet of the sportsman. 

 About April the birds congregate for their 

 iourney northwards, and there is no authentic 

 record of the species having bred in Britain. 

 Mr. John Wolley, an English'naturalist, discovered 

 in Lapland the first known eggs of the jack snipe. 

 And this is how he relates the interesting find : 

 " We had not been many hours in the marsh 

 when I saw a bird get up, and I marked it down. 

 The nest was found. A sight of the eggs, as 

 they lay untouched, raised my expectations to 

 the highest pitch. I went to the spot where I 

 had marked the bird, and put it up again, and 

 again saw it, after a short low flight, drop 

 suddenly into cover. Once more it rose a few 

 feet from where it had settled. I fired, and in a 

 minute had in my hand a true jack snipe, the 

 undoubted parent of the nest of eggs ! In the 

 course of the day and night I found three more 

 nests, and examined the birds of each. One 

 allowed me to touch it with my hand before it 

 rose, and another only got up when my foot was 

 within six inches of it. The nest of the 1 7th of 

 June, and the two of the i8th of June, were all 

 alike in structure, made loosely of dried pieces 



