659 



suddenly into cover. I fired ! and in a minute had in my hand a true Jack-Snipe, the undoubted 

 parent of the nest of eggs ! As usual, I took measures to let the whole party have a share in my 

 gratification before I again gave the word to advance. In the course of the day and night I 

 found three more nests, and examined the birds of each. One allowed me to touch it with my 

 hand before it rose ; and another only got up when my foot was within six inches of it. It 

 was very fortunate I was able to identify so fine a series of eggs ; for they differ considerably 

 from one another. I was never afterwards able to see a nest myself, though I beat through 

 numbers of swamps. Several with eggs hard sat upon were found by people cutting hay in 

 boggy places in July. I have spent a good many hours this present year (1854) in the same 

 Kharto Uoma without finding one, though I had plenty of men and boys in good working order. 

 There have certainly been but few Jack-Snipes in the country this season. The nest of the 17th 

 and the four of the 18th June were all alike in structure, 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 It was not long after I heard it that I 



ascertained that the remarkable hammering noise in the air was made by the Jack-Snipe." 



Professor Newton sends me the following continuation of Mr. Wolley's notes, not given by 

 Mr. Hewitson, copied from his original letter, which is now in Professor Newton's possession : — 

 " But I have never yet quite satisfied myself whether the keet koot, keet koot on the ground, and 

 the baa-aa-aa in the air, which are constantly to be heard in the same places, are made by one 

 and the same bird at different times. At a considerable height it is not easy to distinguish a 

 Jack from another Snipe, and the clicking and bleating seem to my ears exactly like the Common 

 Snipe's. However I did not find a single nest of the latter bird in Iso or Kharto Uoma, though 

 I have met with one or two elsewhere in the neighbourhood. Few of the country people 

 recognize two kinds ; they consider that all the sounds proceed from the same bird — the ' Ram 

 of the heavens.' They take them for signs of the weather, or they adapt them to words 

 pretending to be lamentations of transmigrated girls who have died in their maidenhood and 

 are bewailing their hard fate ; but the lads generally get the worst of it in a trial of wit with 

 their fair companions." 



The eggs of the Jack Snipe are, compared with the size of the bird itself, disproportionately 

 large; and Mr. Hewitson, in calling attention to this curious fact, remarks that whereas the bird 

 itself weighs about two ounces, the four eggs weigh more than an ounce and a half; and I may 

 also add that the young bird in down looks disproportionately large against its parent. 



Eggs of the Jack Snipe in my collection, from North Finland arid Lapland, the latter obtained 

 by Mr. Wolley, vary somewhat in markings ; and though in general character and coloration they 

 resemble those of the common Snipe, they run into richer varieties than those of that bird, and 

 are less in size, averaging lf-jy by 1^ inch. 



The specimens figured are the adult bird in spring dress, and the young bird in down, above 

 described. 



In the preparation of the above article I have examined the following specimens : — 



