912 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY, Vol. XX. 



highest pitch. I went to the spot where I had marked the bird, 

 put it up again, found that it was indeed a Jack Snipe, and again 

 saw it after a short, low flight drop suddenly into cover ; once 

 more it rose a few feet from where it had settled, I fired and in a 

 minute had in my hand a true Jack Snipe, the undoubted parent 

 of the nest of eggs. I walked as composedly as possible back to 

 my friend; he said : "A common bird, I suppose?" I replied 

 " yes, very "; but I shook him warmly by the hand and told him 

 that common birds sometimes lay very rare eggs. As usual I 

 took measures to let the whole party share in my gratification 

 before I again gave the word to advance. In the course of the 

 day and night I found three more nests, and examined the birds 

 of each. One allowed me to touch it with my hand before it rose, 

 and another got up when my foot was within six inches of it. It 

 was very fortunate that I was thus able satisfactorily to identify 

 so fine a series of eggs, for they differ considerably from one 

 another. I was never afterwards able to see a nest myself, 

 though I beat through numbers of swamps. Several with eggs, 

 mostly hard sat upon, were found by people cutting hay in boggy 

 places in July. I have spent a good many hours this present 

 year (1854) in the same Kharta-uoma without finding one, though 

 I had plenty of men and boys in good working order. There 

 have been certainly few Jack Snipes in the country this season. 

 The nest of the 17th and the four of the 18th of June were all 

 alike in structure, made loosely of little pieces of grass and 

 JUquisetum not at all woven together, with a few leaves of the 

 dwarf birch, placed in a dry sedgy or grassy spot close to more 

 open swamp. I found them generally at the best time for finding 

 birds by walking them up from their nests, that is in rainy 

 weather or about midnight. The gnats are, however, there so 

 terrible voracious — destructive — no word is too strong — that tar 

 oil, Templar caps, veils and thick leather gloves are indispensable. 

 " It was not long after I first heard it that I ascertained that 

 the remarkable hammering sound in the air was made by the Jack 

 Snipe ; but I have not yet quite satisfied myself whether the heet- 

 hoot heet-hoot on the ground, and the Baa-aa-aa in the air, which 



