THE JACK SNIPE. 253 



danger seems to alarm them ; and, if we should 

 seek for the little judcock on an ensuing morning, 

 we find it at its spring again. The indifference 

 with which it endures this daily persecution is 

 amazing. It will afford amusement or vexation 

 to the young sportsman throughout the whole 

 Christmas vacation ; and, from the smallnessof its 

 body, will finally often escape from all its diurnal 

 dangers. The rail, and several other birds, con- 

 fide for safety more in their legs than their wings, 

 when disturbed ; but this snipe makes little use of 

 its feet, and takes to its wings with such reluctance, 

 from an apparent indolence of disposition, that, 

 could it be seen in the rushes, or tufts of herbage, 

 where it hides, it might be captured by the hand. 

 It leaves us early in the spring. Fond of con- 

 cealment as this little bird usually is, yet there are 

 times when it is infinitely less so than at others ; 

 and, I think, upon the relenting of a frost, or 

 when there is a tendency to a thaw, it shows un- 

 usual alacrity, springs from its rushy drain almost 

 as readily as the common snipe, and occasions, for 

 the moment, a doubt of the species. The man- 

 dible of this species is of a weak and spongy 

 nature. 



The causes that influence this snipe to lead so 

 solitary a life are particularly obscure, as well as 

 those which stimulate some others to congregate, 

 as we comprehend no individual benefit to arise 

 from such habits. Wild fowl, the rook, and some 



