14G 
THE JACK SNIPE. 
Content to take for needful food 
The creatures G od pronounces good ; 
But not Avitli blood her hands to stain, 
And make a pastime of their pain ! 
JACK SNIFE. 
The Great Snipe (Scolopax major)^ sometimes called 
the Solitary, Woodcock, or Double Snipe ; Sabine's Snipe 
(S.Sabini)'^ and The Jack Snipe (aS'. Galliniila).— The first- 
named of these members of the Snipe family is consi- 
derably larger than the common species, weighing from 
seven to eight ounces, and measuring about twelve inches ; 
it is a straggling visitor to these islands from high northern 
latitudes, and never stays to breed with us ; it is said to 
have a less rapid flight than that of the bird last described, 
and to rise in silence, flying steadily and heavily, with the 
tail expanded like a fan, and usually jDroceeding but a short 
distance before alighting. The second named is sometimes 
called the Black Snipe, from the prevalence of dark tints 
in its plumage, which, owing to the absence of white or 
reddish yellow, distinguishes it from every other species of 
this family. But few specimens of this bird have been 
obtained in England ; one of them was in October 1824, 
on the banks of the Medway, near Rochester ; eleven inches 
is about its length. 
The third on the list is sometimes called the Juddock ; 
