JACK SNIPE. 355 



May ; and it goes for some distance up the Blue Nile. 

 Eastward, it is found in winter in Palestine, Persia, India, 

 Ceylon, Burmah, and Tenasserim, but in the two latter 

 countries it is of rare occurrence. It visits Southern Afghan- 

 istan in winter, but its route cannot at present be traced 

 through the great Asian mountain passes, such as the Pamir; 

 and, on the whole, it would appear that north of the water- 

 shed, and east of the Caspian and the Ural mountains, the 

 Jack Snipe is not a common species. It is true that Mid- 

 dendorff found it breeding on the Boganida in 70 N. lat., 

 and that Kadde met with it in the Sajan mountains, but he 

 saw it nowhere else in Siberia ; it has never been obtained 

 in China : only once in Formosa ; and very rarely in Japan. 



During the breeding-season the Jack Snipe makes a 

 ' drumming ' noise, which Wolley likens " to the cantering 

 of a horse over a hard hollow road : it came in fours with a 

 similar cadence, and a like clear yet hollow sound." Like its 

 congener, it has been seen to perch on rails. Its food con- 

 sists of larvae of insects, beetles, &c., always accompanied 

 by a little grit. A continuance of severe weather does not 

 reduce this species as it does the Common Snipe, and the 

 Editor once found that between the fattest of several Jacks 

 and the leanest of some Common Snipes weighed the same 

 day, there was a difference of only 3- oz. in favour of the 

 larger bird. For the successful mode of treatment during 

 a month's captivity see * The Zoologist' for 1846, p. 1331. 



The beak is dark brown at the point, pale reddish-brown 

 at the base ; irides dark brown ; from the beak to the eye 

 a dark brown streak ; over that, over the eye and over the 

 ear-coverts, a broad pale brown streak, with a narrow darker 

 one along the middle line of the posterior part ; forehead 

 and top of the head rich dark brown, not divided along the 

 middle by a pale brown streak, as in the Great Snipe and 

 Common Snipe; back of the neck greyish-brown, varied 

 with dusky-brown ; back rich dark brown with green and 

 purple reflections; interscapulars and scapulars nearly black, 

 tipped with reddish-brown, both sets having broad external 

 lateral margins of rich bufiy-yellow : wing-coverts dusky- 



