BIRDS OP THE HUMBER DISTRICT. 131 



hink that the ' { Jack " has rather increased. This 

 apparent increase, however, may be due to more 

 equal relative proportions of the two species. In 

 this neighbourhood, compared with the Common 

 Snipe, very few are shot, many sportsmen seldom 

 shooting at them except to make up the number in 

 the bag. Their habit, too, of lying close often stands 

 them in good stead, particularly where the ground is 

 not carefully looked over, which is seldom the case 

 when Snipe rise wild. 



The Jack Snipe arrives in the autumn in October*, 

 and occasional stragglers in September ; I have met 

 with it as early as the 21st of that month f. Like the 

 preceding, the first arrivals are found in the most un- 

 looked-for situations- dry pasture-lands, and both 

 shorn and mown stubble-fields. They remain with 

 us throughout the winter, appearing less susceptible 

 to severe cold than the Common Snipe. Are always 

 plentiful during the period of the spring migration ; 

 and at this time the numbers found in our marsh bogs 

 are often considerably in excess of those of the Com- 

 mon Snipe. They leave about the commencement 

 of April, some few lingering to the middle or even 

 the end of that month J. 



* Most probably comes in flocks, as on their first appearance 

 we almost invariably find many together. 



t Mr. Boulton, in the f Zoologist ' for 1863, p. 8770, mentions 

 a Jack Snipe shot on the river Hull by Mr. T. Buckley on the 

 18th of August in that year. 



\ On the 22nd of March, 1871, in a small bog (about forty 



