THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SNIPE. 207 



his own footsteps. It has been written (vaguely and without 

 details) that the Jack-Snipe skulks in the dense vegetation like 

 a Eail, and runs like that bird through the miniature jungle of 

 the marsh. On the contrary, the bird is rarely encountered 

 except in a clear space, small though this may sometimes be. 

 Frequently I have seen them on perfectly bare mud, or on beds 

 of Sphagnum away from more conspicuous vegetation. 



In such a setting the Jack-Snipe forms the most perfect 

 example of elaborate protective coloration with which I am 

 acquainted. The fact that I have often seen them does not 

 directly affect the question, for I have succeeded not by looking 

 for a bird, but by searching for tivo curved blades of Jaded grass 

 of a colour rather more brilliant than that of any plant native 

 to the locality where most of my observations were made. 

 Perhaps I might offer a quotation from one of my note-books 

 (October 8th, 1901) describing my first appreciation — I had been 

 before acquainted with the matter in a careless degree — of the 

 coloration of the bird : — " The dog had been twice round the 

 pond [a miniature spongy marsh perhaps thirty yards square] 

 . . . when two yellow streaks caught my eye, and I saw a Jack, 

 prone, with head and bill stretched straight out in front ; the 

 grey feathers of the bird almost invisible, and the bright yellow 

 feathers on the back looking marvellously like two withered 

 blades of sedge. ... I had to make a few seconds' examination 

 at a distance of four or five feet before I could convince myself 

 that I had not made some mistake. For about five minutes I 

 walked around it, looking at it from different points of view, and 

 the bird never moved in the least." 



Since that date I have observed many such cases, and have 

 experimented with the birds, both living and dead, at home and 

 in the field. Sometimes it has happened that the Snipe has 

 been surprised on a patch of green turf, or some other in- 

 harmonious background, and (not caring to fly) has run to 

 squat down on the mud near a patch of herbage in the adjacent 

 pond. The prone position is worth noticing. The feet and legs 

 are entirely hidden, the tail is depressed until the tip just 

 touches the ground, and the bill is laid flat. Differing from my 

 first note on this point, the neck is usually bent until the head 

 is close in to the shoulders. In transverse section the bird 



