112 LAND BIRDS 



season. Tliey usually migrate in small companies. Dur- 

 ing the breeding season solitary birds are frequently seen, 

 which spring from the marsh grass with a harsh cry and 

 zigzag swiftly out of sight in a way most tantalizing to 

 the sportsman. Only an expert can hope to bag them. 

 The Jack Snipe frequents low wet places, obtaining 

 food after the manner of a woodcock, by probing with 

 its long slender bill, which, although not prehensile to 

 the extent of a woodcock's, is yet very sensitive at the 

 tip, and readily detects the choice morsels of food down 

 in the damp earth. 



Their capricious selection of feeding ground seems to 

 be governed by some occult knowledge as to the con- 

 ditions of the soil, for they are here to-day, gone to- 

 morrow, and often the only places which seem most 

 likely to be their haunt will not be visited by them 

 at all. 



Mr. Bailey writes of the Jack Snipe : " He is a com- 

 mon bird wherever there are marshes to his taste. . . . 

 On warm summer evenings or cloudy days before a 

 storm, he mounts high in the air and with rapidly vi- 

 brating wings produces a prolonged whirr that increases 

 to a diminutive roar, and repeats it every two or three 

 minutes for sometimes half an hour. At other times he 

 flies low over the grass uttering a guttural chnck-chuck- 

 chuck-chuck-chuck, and then drops out of sight. His 

 common all-round-the-year note is a nasal squawk." 



