114 



British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



Description of the adult. A small copy of tlie Common Snipe, with the 

 following diflFerences: there are two notches on each side of the posterior margin 

 of the sternum (breast-bone), the Common Snipe having one only; the crown is 

 plain dark brown in colour, instead of light brown with two broad dark stripes 

 over the eye; the creamy buflf external margins to the scapulars are much 

 broader, and are arranged so as to form four conspicuous light stripes down the 

 back; the shoulders and back have, especially in the early part of the year, a 

 good deal of beautiful green and purple sheen upon the dark part of the feathers; 

 tail feathers twelve only, instead of fourteen; legs grey, greenish at the joints. 

 Length yi-Si inches, closed wing 3|-4i. Females are rather duller in tints than 

 the males. Young birds have less of the purple and green reflections on the back. 



Nestling: "Upper parts richly varied with deep rufous and black, and dotted 

 here and there with white; a bufiy white streak passes from the forehead over the 

 eye; below this is a dark brown streak covering the lores to the eye; from the 

 base of the lower mandible another white streak passes below the eye, and also 

 one from the chin (which is buffy white) along the side of the head to the nape; 

 under parts dark reddish brown, slightly varied with blackish brown; bill and 

 legs much developed." (Dresser: "Birds of Europe," vii. 654). 



John WoUey, the father of British Oblogists, has given us the only satis- 

 factory account of the nesting of the Jack Snipe, and, since the time when he 

 found the nest (1853), I do not know that any Englishman has had the like 

 good fortune, though it has fallen to some northmen {e.g. Meves). Wolley describes 

 the nest (Muonioniska, Lapland) as "made loosely of little pieces of grass and 

 equisetum, not at all woven together, with a few old leaves of the dwarf birch, 

 placed in a dry sedgy or grassy spot close to more open swamp." The four 

 eggs closely resemble in colour those of the Common Snipe, and measure ij 

 inch by a shade over one inch in breadth. Like those of many Limicoline birds, 

 they are very large for the size of the bird, and the set of four together weigh 

 over i^ ounce: while the bird itself only weighs about two ounces. The eggs 

 are laid about the middle of June. 



A much less shy bird than the Common Snipe, mostly found singly, and 

 not rising therefore in flocks (or "whisps") as it is the aggravating habit of the 

 other to do — out of gun range. Neither is it affected so much by wet windy 

 weather, which makes the Common Snipe unapproachable ; and it rises silently. 

 We are all acquainted with the "sportsman" who got a whole mnter's shooting 

 out of one Jack Snipe, which was always to be found in the same place when 

 wanted, and his lament when he injudiciously took a more skilful friend to the 

 spot, who killed the Snipe. However apocryphal, the story gives a good idea of 



