2772 Birds. 



place for a snipe/' Two kinds of snipe frequent these Mosses; one usually called the 

 ' full snipe,' and the other the 'jack.' To begin, the full snipe usually make their ap- 

 pearance about the latter end of August, and continue to arrive all through September, 

 and during that month are very wild, keeping together in whisps of thirty or forty, and 

 when one snipe gets up and gives its alarm-note, whisps from all parts of the Moss rise 

 also, much to the discomfort of the sportsman. I recollect very well going one 

 morning in the early part of the season of 1848, with a friend, to shoot snipe on one of 

 these Mosses ; it was a warm day, with slight rain, and we were perfectly aware the 

 snipe would be there in great numbers. We reached the Moss and were proceeding 

 cautiously along the edge of it, when a snipe got up, and I fired, but no sooner had 

 the gun sent forth its charge than there arose from all parts of the Moss snipe innu- 

 merable; my friend and I computed the number at between two and three hundred. 

 The wildness of the snipe was caused by the mildness of the day, as in cold windy 

 weather they lie close, and get up either singly or in pairs. When a frost takes place 

 the snipe leave the Mosses and take their departure for the streams, brooks, and ditches, 

 as in frosty weather the pulpy matter of which the Mosses are chiefly composed be- 

 comes hard and impenetrable to the bill of the snipe. Now for the jack snipe. The 

 jack frequents much the same places as the full snipe, but the jack may be found at 

 certain times and in certain places where you will not meet with the full snipe. The 

 reason of this I cannot tell; both kinds of snipe feed on precisely the same kind of 

 food as far as I can see, and if the one kind find the food to their liking, why is not the 

 other there also ? This I leave to people more learned than I am in the philosophy of 

 instinct. The flight of the jack is something similar to that of the common lapwing, 

 but quicker, not the furious zigzag of the full snipe, but that flagging kind of flight 

 which cannot be better described than in the flight of the bird alluded to. The jack 

 is by no means an easy bird to kill, as it flies generally so close along the ground that 

 it puzzles many a first-rate stubble shot. The jack lies very close, and will allow a 

 person to walk nearly over him before he will rise. During the frost of last month I 

 found plenty of jacks, but very few full snipe. On the 22nd of last month I was 

 going through a bushy, wet cover, when one of the beaters put up a snipe of immense 

 size ; I think from appearances it must have been the species called the great snipe. 

 The finding the nest of a snipe is rather a rare occurrence, although I am confident 

 many remain all through the summer to breed, as I have flushed them whilst walking 

 on these Mosses. — /. M. Jones ; Montgomery, North Wales, February 16, 1850. 



Variety of the Corn Crake (Crex pratensis). — Mr. Barnes lately killed a variety 

 of the corn crake having beautiful white feathers along the breast and wing- 

 coverts. I have seen a variety, killed by my father many years ago, having the wing 

 perfectly white. — /. B. Hodghinson ; 12, Preston Street, Carlisle, March, 1850. 



Occurrence of the Pink-footed Goose (Anser brachyrhynchus) and Brent Goose 

 (Anser Brenta) near Wisbeach. — One specimen of the former and several of the latter 

 have been shot in our marshes, in addition to the usual number of gray-lag, bean 

 and bernicle geese, and other wild fowl. In the middle of last month the frost was 

 intense, which, combined with a heavy fall of snow, completely cut off all means of 

 subsistence for our winter visitants, and they were consequently driven to sea, far out 

 of the reach of our gunners, who uttered loud complaints at the scarcity of birds. — 

 T. W. Foster; Wisbeach, February 18, 1850. 



Occurrence of the Egyptian Goose (Anser ^Egyptiacus) in Sussex. — A few weeks 

 since I had the good fortune to obtain a specimen of the Egyptian goose : it was shot 



