NATURAL HISTORY. 351 



NUMENIUS. (Gr. Novfjiqvios.) 



Scolopacinus (Lat. like a Woodcock), the Snipe. 



The SNIPE is too well known to need description. In its 

 habits it much resembles the woodcock, excepting that it 

 breeds plentifully in several counties of England, Scotland, and 

 and Ireland. Its flight is very singular, rendering it a difficult 

 mark. The Jack Snipe confines itself to one spot, and cannot 

 be induced to leave it even when fired upon. Its flight is fully 

 as perplexing as that of the common Snipe. Stanley, in his 

 History of Birds, mentions " a gentleman, a very bad shot, who 

 having at length succeeded in killing a Jack Snipe, deeply 

 lamented the loss of a bird which, as he was always sure of 

 finding it in the same place, had afforded him constant amuse- 

 ment during a whole winter." 



THE RUFF. 



The RUFF is celebrated for its pugnacious habits and the 

 singular change of its plumage at certain seasons of the year. 

 Towards the breeding season a beautiful frill of long feathers 

 forms round the neck. It is a singular fact, that in hardly 

 any two of these birds is the frill of the same colour ; an( i 

 more remarkable, that the frill of the same bird is of different 

 colours at different seasons. At the same time that the frill 



