ADDITIONAL NOTES. 287 



snipes, with ducks and teal, come into the marshes in the south 

 of Illyria, but the jack-snipe is always later in its passage, later 

 even than the double-snipe, or the woodcock. In 1828, in the 

 drains about Laybach, in Illyria, common snipes were seen in 

 the middle of July. The first double snipes appeared the first 

 week in September, when likewise woodcocks were seen ; the 

 first jack-snipe did not appear till three weeks later than the 29th 

 of September. I was informed at Copenhagen, that the jack-snipe 

 certainly breeds in Zeeland, and I saw a nest with its eggs, said 

 to be from the island of Sandholm, opposite Copenhagen, and I 

 have no doubt that this bird and the double-snipe sometimes 

 make their nests in the marshes of Holstein and Hanover. An 

 excellent sportsman and good observer informs me, that, in the 

 great royal decoy, or marsh-preserve, near Hanover, he has had 

 ocular proofs of double-snipes being raised from the nest there ; 

 but these birds require solitude and perfect quiet, and, as their 

 food is peculiar, they demand a great extent of marshy meadow. 

 Their stomach is the thinnest amongst birds of the scolopax 

 tribe, and, as I have said before, their food seems to be entirely 

 the larvae of the tipulse, or congenerous flies. 



(On the Vitality of Fish, page 78.) 



The propriety of avoiding the too common practice of 

 allowing the fish caught to die slowly, is pointed out. The 

 experienced angler knows well, that by dislocating the spine of 

 small fish, or by a blow on the head of the larger, death or loss 

 of sensation is immediately produced. If not so treated, a trout 

 may live an hour or two after having been taken from the water, 

 a retention of life chiefly indicated by the action of its gill- 

 covers, an action connected with the aeration of the blood, 

 equivalent to respiration. The power of sustaining life out of 

 water, and in water of different qualities, varies remarkably in 

 different species of fish. The carp, we are assured, may be fed 

 and fattened out of water, provided it be kept moist. The eel 

 has almost the same power of supporting life in a moist atmo- 

 sphere. The trout, like the salmon, can pass from fresh to salt 

 water, and from the latter to the former, with impunity.* The 



[* I have found a small trout, immersed as soon as caught in a solution of 

 common salt of sp. gr. 1022, which is weaker than sea water, live as long as 



