THE JACK 



filled the parent, is in no way to lead to its injury or 

 destruction : and this is enforced, not by command 

 only, not by the threat of punishment and privation, 

 but by the assurance of temporal reward, by pro- 

 mise of the greatest blessings that can be found on 

 earth, length of days and prosperity. 



The jack snipe (scolopax gallinula) is with us 

 here, as I have always known it, a transitory visiter 

 in the winter only a solitary, unsocial bird an an- 

 chorite from choice. With the exception of our birds 

 of prey, the manner of whose existing requires it, 

 and a few others, all the feathered tribe seem to have 

 a general tendency toward association, either in 

 flocks, family parties, or pairs ; but the individuals 

 of this species pass a large portion of their lives 

 retired and alone, two of them being rarely, or, 

 perhaps never, found in company, except in the 

 breeding season. They are supposed to pair and 

 raise their young in the deep marshy tracts or reedy 

 districts of the fen-counties, which afford conceal- 

 ment from every prying eye, and safety from all 

 common injuries. Driven by the frosts of winter 

 from these watery tracts, their summer's covert, 

 they separate, and seek for food in more favoured 

 situations, preferring a little, lonely, open spring, 

 trickling from the side of a hill, tangled with grass 

 and foliage, or some shallow, rushy streamlet in a 

 retired valley. Having fixed on such a place, they 

 seldom abandon it long, or quit it for another, and 

 though roused from it, and fired at repeatedly 

 through the day, neither the noise, nor any sense of 



