WADERS. 299 



The Snipe is too well known to need description. In its 

 habits it much resembles the woodcock. Its flight is very sin- 

 gular, rendering it a diflScult mark. The Jack Snipe confines 

 itself to one spot, and cannot be induced to leave it even when 

 fired upon. Its flight is fully as perplexing as that of the Com- 

 m M Snipe. Stanley, in his History of Birds, mentions " a gen- 

 tleman, a very bad shot, who having at length succeeded in killing 

 a Jack Snipe, deeply lamented the loss of a bird which, as he was 

 always sure of finding it in the same place, had afforded him con- 

 stant amusement during a whole winter." 



The EufF is celebrated for its pugnacious habits and the 

 singular change of its plumage at certain seasons of the year. 



Towards the breeding season a beautiful frill of long feathers ia 

 formed round the neck. It is a singular fact, that in hardly any 

 two of these birds is the frill of the same color ; and more remark- 

 able, that the frill of the same bird is of dififerent colors at different 

 seasons. At the same time that the frill forms, the male birds 

 choose each for themselves a small spot, on which no other bird is 

 permitted to intrude without a severe battle taking place. The 

 females, called Reeves, now arrive, and their approach is the signal 

 for a general melee ; and the ground is soon denuded of grass by 

 th" constant battles. 



