THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SNIPE. 211 



devoted himself to procuring the smaller bird, from a spot that 

 was suited to the species. The ponds I write about are really 

 fragments of true marsh-land, with a distinct florula — Sphagnum 

 spp., Marchantia polymorpha, Eriophorum angustifolmm, Carex 

 ciirta, G. Icevigata, Comarum palustre, and plants of a similar cha- 

 racter. At one time many parts of England, now drained, were 

 clothed with these peat-loving plants. To-day, when a " made " 

 pond stands long enough, a deposit of peat forms an island in 

 the middle, and in time it becomes covered with the plants 

 I name above, and in winter forms a safe home for the Jack- 

 Snipe. It appears to me that there are more birds than we 

 have room for, and if we kill the individual occupying a desirable 

 pond, the spot is at once occupied by the first-comer from what 

 one may term the floating population. It is hardly necessary 

 to add that the Jack-Snipe does not crowd in these localities ; if 

 this were so, my explanation would not hold good. 



The sexes of the Jack-Snipe are alike at all seasons, and the 

 antiquity of the livery is suggested by the nestling bird, in which 

 the dorsal plumes are brilliant and well-defined, and the bill 

 precociously lengthy. That the plumage has passed the plastic 

 stage is proved by the rarity of variations. I have only been 

 able to learn of two abnormal Jack- Snipes. Mr. Bond had a 

 very dark (melanistic) specimen in his collection, and some 

 years ago the ' Countryside ' published a photograph of one 

 with white feathers in the wings. As we all know, varieties 

 amongst Common Snipe are remarkably frequent— more so, 

 perhaps, than in any other British bird except the Kufl. 



The Jack-Snipe rises superior to a' frost hard enough to clear 

 a district of all other marsh-birds, and I have known it to 

 remain long after every drop of water had been bound up as 

 ice; under these conditions they live well. The plumpness of 

 a Jack in frosty weather is proverbial, while under the same 

 conditions the Common Snipe may be reduced to a pitiful 

 bunch of feathers. Many of the above details form part of the 

 common knowledge of observers, but their application is im- 

 portant. 



Every ornithologist knows that the Jack- Snipe is exclusively 

 a winter visitor to this country ; the many accounts of its nest- 

 ing with us are not worth a moment's attention. Differing from 



