JACK SNIPE. 



59 



OR ALL A 1 ORES. SCOLOPA ClDJE. 



PLATE CXCIV. 



JACK SNIPE. 



SCOLOPAX GALLINULA. 



The Jack Snipe is of frequent occurrence in Britain, 

 wherever the locality suits its habits ; this bird is also met 

 with in most parts of Europe, Northern Asia, Africa, and 

 America ; its habits being more solitary than those of the 

 Common Snipe, it is nowhere, to our knowledge, known to 

 congregate in numbers. Although we have gone in search 

 of Snipes in several parts of Europe, we have never put up 

 more than one bird of this species at a time, although two 

 frequently may be found within from fifty to a hundred yards 

 apart. 



The localities frequented by the present species are swampy 

 borders of rivers, lakes, and ditches that are covered with 

 rank grasses, extending some way in the water ; among the 

 shelter of this herbage the Jack Snipe lies very close, even to 

 a remarkable degree. The fact that we meet with the Jack 

 Snipe earlier in the autumn, and later in the spring of the 

 year than the common Snipe, strengthens the information we 

 have received, and which also corresponds with our own 

 opinion, that it does not migrate so far north for the purpose 

 of breeding, as the foregoing species. It has very rarely 

 happened that we have seen the common Snipe in autumn, 



