THE JACK SNIPE. 127 



larity. It makes no cry when disturbed. The French 

 speak of the bird as the " Deaf Snipe/' in allusion to 

 the very little notice or attention it bestows upon persons 

 approaching its haunts. 



The Jack Snipe may be designated as a purely winter 

 visitor ; it arrives usually about September or October, and 

 remains until the following- March or April. It is thus 

 of more pronounced winter habits, arriving later and 

 departing earlier than the Common Snipe; but we once 

 found one as late as the 2 1st of the latter month on the 

 South Downs, amongst some heather and far away 

 from any water; it is very unusual to find them in 

 such places, and no doubt the bird was on its migration 

 northward. 



The nest is commonly built in the vegetation of damp 

 marshy places ; the eggs are about four in number, of a 

 yellowish-olive colour, spotted at the larger end with dark 

 and light brown, and rather more than one inch in length. 

 The young birds run soon after they are hatched, and are 

 covered with a very pretty brown down, edged with a lighter 

 colour, which gives them a spotted appearance. 



The food of the Jack Snipe consists of small water 

 insects, the larva? common to wet, boggy places, and the 

 seeds of some water plants. 



Russia, Siberia, and the Baltic countries are the 

 more proper home of the Jack Snipe; in Russia and 

 the more western parts of Siberia it is found in immense 

 numbers, breeding in the northern parts of Europe 

 during the summer, and departing in winter for somewhat 

 more temperate climes. It appears also to be pretty 

 widely distributed throughout Northern India. In the 

 winter it is found as far south in Europe as Italy and 



