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Mr. Hancock says that it is an autumn and winter visitant to Northumberland, arriving in 

 October and departing in spring, and is less numerous than the common Snipe. In Scotland, 

 Mr. Robert Gray writes (B. of W. of Scotl. p. 313), " it is found in nearly the same localities as 

 the common Snipe, both in the Hebrides and on the mainland, but is never seen congregating 

 in numbers at any season. In Skye, Islay, Jura, Iona, and Mull, and in nearly all the islands of 

 minor extent, it is found in small groups in the marshes ; and even in districts thickly populated 

 it regularly appears, small parties being observed every winter on the shootings in the immediate 

 neighbourhood of Glasgow. I find the Jack Snipe nowhere more common than in Forfarshire. 

 From some of the marshes in the neighbourhood of the county town I have obtained six or seven 

 brace in the course of a short turn with the dogs. On the west coast these birds arrive early in 

 October, and are nearly all gone about the beginning of April ; but in the island of North Uist 

 single birds have been flushed and shot as late as the second week in June." Mr. Gray refers 

 also to instances in which it has been said to have nested in Scotland ; but, so far as I can gather, 

 there is no authentic instance of its nest having really been found there. 



In Ireland, it is stated by Thompson (B. of Ireland, ii. p. 278) to be common from about 

 the 1st October to the end of March ; and he adds that he was assured by Mr. Jackson, a game- 

 keeper, that it bred near the town of Ballyhannis, co. Mayo, in 1834. According to Macgillivray 

 the proportion of the present species as compared with the common Snipe is about one to ten, 

 whereas in Ireland the Jack Snipe is much more numerous, the proportion being about one 

 to four. 



Though not found in Greenland, Iceland, or the Fseroes, the Jack Snipe is tolerably common 

 in Scandinavia. Mr. K. Collett says that it breeds here and there in Norway, from the extreme 

 northern districts down to below the Dovre, but is most frequently met with during the summer 

 north of the arctic circle, as in Lofoten, at Bodo, Tromso, and in East Finmark. Dr. Printz 

 found it breeding in June 1862 in Valders. In the autumn, spring, and winter it is not unfre- 

 quently met with in the southern portions of Norway, both near the coast and in the interior. 

 Professor Nilsson says that it is found throughout Sweden, but nowhere as numerous as the 

 common Snipe. He adds that it is said to breed in Southern Sweden, but this appears doubtful. 

 It arrives in the vicinity of Lund late in March, and leaves for the north in the first half of 

 April, the males arriving first, and their mates following about a week later. In the autumn 

 they first appear about the middle of November, and till the early part of December they keep 

 dropping in. A few remain in Central and Southern Sweden throughout the winter, the rest 

 passing further south. In Finland, Dr. Palmen says, it is found in most parts of the country, 

 more frequently in the southern and eastern portions than in the west, and breeds in the north. 

 To this I may add that I have its eggs, taken near the Ija. river, north of Uleaborg. It arrives 

 in Finland early in May, and leaves in September and October. It is stated to be common and 

 to breed near Archangel ; but Messrs. Seebohm and Harvie-Brown did not meet with it on the 

 Petchora river, in Northern Russia. Mr. Sabanaeff informs me that it breeds in many parts of 

 the interior of Russia, as for instance in the Governments of Jaroslaf, Vladimir, and Tver ; and 

 Professor Kessler states that a brood of young Jack Snipes was found in the Orloff Government. 

 Mr. Sabanaeff never observed it on the eastern slope of the Ural in the summer ; but according 

 to Hoffmann it breeds in the northern portion of the Perm Government, at the head-waters of 



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