378 THE JACK SNIPE. 
the Common Snipe, though I have not particularly noticed 
this, they also, in colder climes, and beneath cloudier skies, 
are able to make better use of their wings. 
Some sportsmen, it is true, think them hardly worth shooting, 
but to them I should say, what I once heard an old woman 
of methodistical tendencies, reply to our Rector, with whom she 
differed on matters of grace and regeneration, ‘That comes 
all along of your ignerence.’ For of a surety, perfect in 
their own way, as may bea well-fattened Ortolan in Italy, or 
~Quail in India, delicately enwrapped in their protecting vine leaves, 
equally perfect though in another way (and far above all ple- 
beian Fantails and Pintails) is a plethoric Jack, who, after 
glancing at the glowing embers, awaits, enthroned upon a toast, 
your eager devotion. 
It seems to be assumed by European writers that Jacks only 
feed at night; but such is assuredly not the case here, as I have 
shot them at 9 A.M., and again at 5 P.M., in the act of feed- 
ing, and with half-swallowed food in their throats. I dare say 
they feed a good deal at night. I know that, during the heat 
of the day, they lie up, (asleep I fancy, by the way dogs pounce 
on them), but they also certainly feed both in the mornings 
and towards evening. Their food, here, consists of grubs, 
worms, and tiny insects, shells and _ crustacea, besides 
which a certain amount of green vegetable matter, minute 
portions of weed, club moss and grass, as far as I could make 
out, is occasionally found in their stomachs. I have never 
chanced to find any seeds, but it seems certain that in Europe 
they do eat grass seeds at times, and probably they do the 
same here. 
THEY do not breed within our limits. Wolley, the first orni- 
thologist who took their eggs, gives a long account of finding the 
nests in Finland. One gathers that in the breeding season the 
males career about at a great pace high in air, giving rise to a 
peculiar sound, of which Wolley says that he can only liken it 
to the cantering of a horse in the distance, over a hard, hollow 
road. Of certain nests, which were found in the great marsh of 
Muonioniska, he says :— 
“The nest of the 17th, and 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.” 
The eggs, always four in number, are very large for the size 
of the bird, so much so that MHewitson, in figuring them, 
remarked :— 
“Were not the eggs verified beyond a doubt, no one would 
credit that a bird of such small dimensions (not a great deal 
larger than a Skylark) could produce them, or, having produced 
