SCOLOPACID^. 329 



Jack SnipG. LiuDWcryptes galUnula (Linn.). 



[Jack, Half Snipe, Atterflitter {N.D.).'] 



A wiiiter visitor, numerous in suitable localities. 



This dimiuutive and prettily-marked Snipe is a winter visitor to this 

 countrj' from the north of Europe, and although we have shot it in Scot- 

 land as earl}' as i^Sth of August, the 2nd of September is tho earliest date 

 on which we have met with it in IS^orth Devon. On the Dartmoor bogs 

 we generally expected to see it by the 10th September, and Ave remember 

 six and a half couple of " Jacks " having been bagged on Ray barrow 

 Mire on the 12th September, which was also the date when we used to 

 find the first " Jacks " in the drains on the level in the neighbourhood of 

 Wcsto7i-super-!Mare. On the Exe, however, none are seen before October, 

 the earliest date known to us being Oct. 5th, 1855 ; and Mr. Eoss men- 

 tions one killed Oct. 7th, IS^U, in very fine plumage (MS. Journ. ii. 

 p. 124). The Jacks generally appear on our estuaries early in November, 

 They linger longer on Dartmoor than elsewhere in South Devon, and we 

 have seen them ihere as late as March ('Zoologist,' 1872). In North 

 Devon they remain occasionally till the middle of April. 



Mr. Pioss gives an account of a Jack Snipe which he kept alive for a 

 month, and which became quite tame. It was fed on worms, which it would 

 take from the hand, chopped raw beef, and a portion of boiled rice, and 

 required three meals a day, the last late at night (Zool. 1846, p. 1331). 



We have many times seen this little Snipe seated on the side of a ditch 

 with its beak pointed downwards towards the water, which seemed to be 

 its usual position. When we shot over Dartmoor we had a team of three 

 very handsome Gordon setters, all admirable Snipe dogs, and we can re- 

 member one of these dogs one day coming to a point with the other two 

 "backing" at a little distance, and, on walking up to tho setting dog, 

 seeing a Jack Snipe crouched before his nose, which refused to rise until 

 we gently touched its back with the muzzle of our gun ! One of our 

 setters used to catch these little birds and bring them to our hand jierfectly 

 uninjured. We once were on the point of taking a Jack from the dog's 

 mouth when, directly it relaxed its jaws, the little Snipe made oft' with 

 its butterfly flight, and, crossing a broad ditch, settled in safety beyond our 

 reach. Occasionally we hiive heard a wounded " Jack " muke a mouse-like 

 squeak as we have picked it up, the only sound we have ever heard pro- 

 ceed from the bird. Although usually solitary. Jack Snipe sometimes 

 congregate, and avc once put up twelve or fourteen from a small patch of 

 floating vegetation which formed an island in the middle of a cattle-pond. 

 The old pointer we had with us was actually standing these birds, as she 

 was " treading water," after swimming part of the distance between tho 

 bank and the little island which contained all the Snipe, every one of them 

 being bagged by us subsequently in detail. We have seen Jack Snipe as 

 hde as Ajtril lOth on the Sfraerset peat-moors, and a few days later on 

 the N(jrtham liurrows in Xorlli Devon, where we one day came across a 

 coiiMderable number among some liigh clumps of spiked rush on perfectly 



