JACK SNIPE. 247 



SCOLOPAX GALLINULA. 

 JACK SNIPE. 



(PLATE 28.) 



Scolopax gallinago minor, Briss. Orn. v. p. 304, pi. 26. fig. 2 (1760). 



Scolopax gallinula, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 244 (1766) ; et auctorum plurimorum 



Ncntmann, Temminck, Schlegel, (Bonaparte), (Dresser), &c. 

 Gallinago minima, Leach, Syst. Cat. Mamm. $c. Brit. Mus. p. 31 (1816). 

 Lynmocryptes gallinula (Linn.'), Kaup, Natiirl. Syst. p. 118 (1829). 

 Gallinago gallinula (Linn.), Bonap. Comp, List B. Eur. fy N. Amer. p. 52 (1838). 

 Philolimnos gallinula (Linn.), Brehm, Vog. Deutschl. p. 623 (1831). 

 Ascalopax gallinula (Linn.), Keys. u. Bias. Wirb. Eur. p. Ixxvii (1840). 

 Telmatias gallinula (Linn.), Droste, Vog. Bork. p. 234 (1869). 



The Jack Snipe is a regular winter visitor to the British Islands, and is 

 generally but sparingly distributed wherever marshy ground is to be found, 

 not only in England, Scotland, and Ireland, but also in all the surrounding 

 islands where suitable localities exist. 



The Jack Snipe is a very local bird, but appears to be irregularly dis- 

 tributed in the Arctic regions during the breeding-season, from the Atlantic 

 to the Pacific. It breeds on the Dovrefjeld, above the limits of forest- 

 growth, and throughout the tundras of Lapland. Henke says that it is 

 only seen on migration at Archangel; Hoffmann records it from the 

 source of the Petchora; and Middendorff met with it on the Boganida 

 river, south of the Taimur peninsula, in lat. 70. It doubtless breeds in 

 North-east Siberia, since it has occurred repeatedly in Japan and once in 

 Formosa. Dybowsky did not meet with it near Lake Baikal ; but Finsch 

 records it on migration in South-west Siberia; Severtzow says that it 

 passes through Turkestan, and Bogdanow records it in spring and autumn 

 in the valley of the Volga. It winters throughout the basin of the Medi- 

 terranean, and inland in Africa north of the Great Desert, as well as in 

 Persia, Afghanistan, India, Ceylon, and Burma. The Jack Snipe has no 

 very near ally. 



The Jack Snipe leaves our shores in March and is a rare bird in April, a 

 fact suggesting the idea that the birds which visit our islands are those which 

 breed in the south of the Scandinavian peninsula. In Central Germany 

 Jack Snipes seldom occur except on migration, and are commonest in 

 spring, from the end of March to the end of April evidently birds breeding a 

 mouth later than those which winter with us, and consequently going further 

 north. In the north of Siberia Middendorff first observed them on the 8th 

 of June. In England the Jack Snipe returns from its breeding-grounds in 



