JACK SNIPE. 313 



resorting invariably to places covered with large stones, below 

 which they could take shelter in case of being disturbed. I have 

 watched them in such situations, almost daily, for two or three 

 months, and have often been amused on seeing them hurrying with 

 anxious jerks to get out of sight under the boulders when any one 

 approached their feeding ground. As might be expected, this 

 species is abundant in Orkney. 



Of late years accounts have been published by Mr E. H. Eodd 

 of Penzance, and Mr J. Gatcombe of Plymouth, respecting a British 

 Snipe presenting some characters differing from those of the common 

 species, the chief of which are a uniform ruddiness of plumage and 

 a shortness of the tarsi when compared with the body. Mr Gould, 

 in his work on British Birds now in course of publication, proposes 

 to name this bird the Russet Snipe (Gallinago russata), assuming 

 that these characters may be found'to be permanent. I have never 

 myself met with this snipe in my shooting experiences; but when 

 in Inverness in February, 1869, Mr W. MacLeay showed me a fine 

 specimen which had been killed some time before, near Tain, by 

 Dr Bryden, and it is not improbable that it may yet be found in 

 some numbers in other parts of Scotland. 



THE JACK SNIPE. 



SCOLOPAX GALLINULA. 



BEING a migratory species, and only a winter visitant to this 

 country, the Jack Snipe is much less numerous than its congener, 

 the common snipe. It is, however, found in nearly the same 

 localities both in the Hebrides and on the mainland, but is never 

 seen congregating in numbers at any season. In Skye, Islay, 

 Jura, lona, and Mull, and in nearly all the islands of minor extent, 

 it is found in small groups in the marshes; and even in districts 

 thickly populated it regularly appears small parties being 

 observed every winter on the shootings in the immediate neigh- 

 bourhood of Glasgow. I find the Jack Snipe nowhere more 

 common than in Forfarshire. From some of the marshes in the 

 neighbourhood of the county town I have obtained six or seven 

 brace in the course of a short turn with the dogs. 



On the west coast these birds arrive early in October, and are 

 nearly all gone about the beginning of April; but, in the island of 



