34 SCOLOPACID^E. 



although it feeds on bare, boggy ground, yet when not 

 searching for food it chooses sheltered situations among 

 strong rushes, or coarse long grass, and the luxuriant vege- 

 tation common to moist grounds. In such places the Jack 

 Snipe is remarkable for its sluggishness, seldom taking wing 

 till almost trodden upon, which has induced French Natu- 

 ralists to call this species Becassine sourde, as though it were 

 deaf to the approach of an enemy, and instances have oc- 

 curred in which a Jack Snipe has allowed itself to be 

 picked up by hand before the nose of a pointer. Though 

 generally dispersed over the British Islands in winter, it is 

 considered to be less numerous as a species than the Com- 

 mon Snipe, and does not, when flushed, utter any note. 

 The Jack Snipe appears to have particular attachment to 

 certain localities, so much so, that a sportsman shooting for 

 years in succession over the same ground, knows exactly 

 where to look for any Jack Snipe that is in his country. 

 Thus Mr. Selby, who is a good sportsman as well as an 

 accomplished naturalist, says of this species, in reference to 

 his own locality in Northumberland, u the first flights gene- 

 rally arrive here as early as the second week of September, 

 as I have seldom failed to meet with it in a favourite haunt 

 between the 14th and 20th of that month," and I receive 

 similar accounts from other country friends with whose 

 communications in ornithology I am favoured. 



This bird is to be seen in the London poulterers'* shops as 

 late as the first week in April in every year, and the plum- 

 age then exhibits all the bloom and brilliancy of the ap- 

 proaching nuptial period, but I have never seen a bird that 

 was killed in summer, or a British example of the egg. 

 Mr. Paget, in his sketch of the Natural History of Yar- 

 mouth and its neighbourhood, says, " Mr. C. Girdlestone 

 offered a sovereign to any one who would bring him a spe- 



