352 SCOLOPACIDjE. 



Snipe is remarkable for its sluggishness, seldom taking wing 

 till almost trodden upon, which has induced French natu- 

 ralists to call this species Becassine sourcle, as though it 

 were deaf to the approach of an enemy ; and instances have 

 occurred 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 

 less numerous as a species than the Common 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 succes- 

 sion over the same ground, knows exactly where to look for 

 any Jack Snipe that is in his country. Selby, who was a 

 good sportsman as well as an accomplished naturalist, says 

 of this species, in reference to his own locality in Northum- 

 berland, " the first flights generally 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." Mr. Cordeaux, writing of Lincolnshire, 

 says that it comes the last week in that month ; and there 

 is often a large arrival with a full moon and east wind, in 

 October. It occasionally strikes against lighthouses and 

 light-ships, but less frequently than the Common Snipe. 



Prior to its departure in April northwards this bird ex- 

 hibits in its plumage all the bloom and brilliancy of the ap- 

 proaching nuptial period. Individuals have occasionally been 

 known to remain until late in the spring, and even through 

 the summer, and more than fifty years ago, when it was 

 fondly believed that the Jack Snipe bred in our islands, and 

 that the presence of an individual in summer was to some 

 extent a proof of this, Mr. Girdlestone offered a sovereign to 

 any one who could bring him a specimen of this bird shot at 

 that season. In 1822 he had one brought to him in June ; 

 in May, 1824, he and the late Rev. B. Lubbock saw two on 

 Bradwell Common, and, on the 2nd July, 1825, according to 

 Mr. Stevenson, a fenman named Hewitt, who had long been 

 watching one which had remained behind, knocked it down 

 with his hat, it being so ragged, scurfy, and feeble that it 



