206 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



tered without law (as many artists have depicted them), are 

 marshalled in geometrically accurate, intersecting arcs of circles. 



In portraits of the Jack- Snipe the feathers are not properly 

 drawn, nor have they been accurately described in any work 

 I have yet consulted. The long golden scapulars are said to be 

 " yellow on the outer webs." This is only partially true, for the 

 anterior feathers are alternately yellow on the outer and on the 

 inner webs. In the living bird, except on rare occasions, these 

 important feathers are so arranged that the yellow parts exactly 

 overlap and produce two brilliant golden streaks down the sides 

 of the back. The edges are cleanly defined, and when we 

 tamper with the arrangement, upsetting the order of the colours 

 {i. e. causing the dark web to fall below the yellow web of the 

 preceding feather), the loss in brilliancy becomes at once evident. 

 The brightness is attained by each yellow web being backed by a 

 second yellow web with the barbs crossing at right angles, and 

 this arrangement is of the utmost importance to the bird. 



When a Jack-Snipe is flushed at short range, and flies down 

 wind, the scapulars may sometimes be seen fluttering like tiny 

 pennons ; yet when the same bird is detected a few seconds 

 later lying prone and motionless, the feathers are clearly arranged 

 with instinctive care. In a drawing these feathers are rarely, if 

 ever, properly figured ; yet I have seen one excellent photograph 

 (in Mr. E. Kearton's ' Wild Nature's Ways,' p. 266) that gives 

 a refreshingly accurate portrait of a Jack-Snipe — one of the rare 

 instances in which the camera rises superior both to the man of 

 science and to the trained draughtsman. It is seldom, indeed, 

 that this bird leaves the taxidermist's hands anything else except 

 a bedraggled caricature. In a freshly killed bird, by a little 

 patience, it is possible to replace the feathers in their proper 

 order, but the task is far easier with a "green" skin, for the 

 slightest scratching with the finger-nail along the inside, follow- 

 ing the pterylae, is sufficient to throw the feathers into their 

 natural ranks. With care this order can be preserved in the 

 mounted bird. 



In spite of its wide distribution, the Jack-Snipe is not a 

 well-known bird to the field naturalist who is not also a sports- 

 man. It is rarely observed except on the wing. Even the 

 gunner seldom sees the bird until it is flushed by bis dog or by 



