216 GRALLJE. 



parts of the back, glossed with rich metallic reflections of 

 purple, bronze colour, and green. 



The account usually given of this very interesting little 

 snipe is, that it arrives in Britain, by foreign migration, 

 about the month of September, seldom, if ever, later than 

 the middle of the month ; that it remains with us during the 

 winter ; and that, as early as March, or even as .February, if 

 the season be mild, it retires again towards ^Q polar coun- 

 tries, where it breeds. 



Now, that the bird appears and disappears on the coasts 

 and warmer parts of the country at the times stated, is, no 

 doubt, true ; but the times themselves do not answer well 

 with a migration to the " polar regions " the general place 

 of exile for all birds of whose haunts, during the breeding 

 time, writers on natural history are ignorant. These birds 

 do not build on the shores ; and it is not summer in the inte- 

 rior of the arctic lands before May, or even June ; so that 

 ijie birds would have a very lingering journey northward. 

 On that journey we might expect to find them resting in 

 great numbers upon all the marshy parts of the Orkney and 

 Shetland Islands ; but that is not the case. In Orkney, they 

 are mentioned as having been seen in the island of Wester-se ; 

 but even there they are not numerous, and the time of their 

 appearance does not answer to that of a halt upon a migra- 

 tion. There is also no known place in the north where such 

 numbers of inland birds from Europe could breed, as are 

 reported to resort to the extreme north for that purpose. 



On the other hand, when we consider the habits of the 

 jack-snipe, while with us on the low grounds in the winter, 

 we may thence see that it could remain and nestle in the 

 heart of the larger bogs and morasses, without being observed. 

 Even at that season, when almost all birds fly readily, and 

 some species, which are dispersed, obscure, and hideling, in 

 the breeding season, congregate together, and are much in 



