$9 

 birds as specially difficult to hit in my shooting days, 



but I have been repeatedly baulked by their dropping 

 to the ground again before they were far enough off to 

 shoot at. As a rule the Jack Snipe loves good covert 

 of sedge or reeds, but I have not infrequently detected 

 him upon muddy spots almost entirely bare of vege- 

 tation. On one occasion I flushed one of these birds 

 that, instead of pitching again within a short distance, 

 joined a flock of Peewits, and went quite out of sight 

 with them. I have found Jack Snipes in all the 

 Mediterranean marshes that I have visited, and was 

 surprised to find a few lingering in Cyprus late in 

 April ; one of these birds uttered a low hollow note 

 that I had only heard once before in the case of a 

 " Jack " flushed on the bank of our river at home in the 

 month of March. Our bird ranges to the southward as 

 far as Ceylon and the Blue Nile in the winter. In 

 captivity the Jack Snipe thrives well if constantly sup- 

 plied with small earthworms, of which he will consume 

 almost incredible numbers. 



