392 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
this specimen : " On 7th and 8th October the wind had 
been east and north east, and a gale of considerable force. 
On 9th and 10th the frost was hard and a good deal of ice 
on the springs, and on these days there were a large number 
of Snipes on all the higher grounds. They lay very close, 
were evidently fatigued, and were, no doubt, portions of a 
flight on their passage. Eight were put up from a few 
rush bushes, growing in a space of twenty yards square 
from which the specimen alluded to was shot. Next day 
scarcely a Snipe was to be seen."* 
A Snipe marked N. 1908, shot in Gretna parish on 
September 3rd, 1908, came from Netherbyf (Cumberland): 
where it had been " ringed " in July of the same year. 
THE JACK SNIPE. Gallinago gallinula (Linnaeus). 
An autumn and winter-visitant ; but in varying numbers. 
In the closing days of September or in early October, the Jack 
Snipe may be met with, and is often flushed from unexpected 
spots. As the season advances, the influx continues, but a 
considerable movement goes on, as this species is said to be 
" pecuHarly sensitive to meteorological changes ; and it 
seldom stays with us as late as March. Mr. John Corrie 
of Glencairn, states : " I am disposed to think it remains 
to nestle, but cannot speak positively as to this. It has 
been seen about the commencement of August, and if not 
a nesting species, August seems a late month to leave, and 
an early one to return."§ Individuals, which for some cause 
or another, have not been able to accompany their fellows 
in their emigration, have been observed elsewhere in Great 
Britain on similar early dates, but this fact proves nothing. 
My attention having been drawn to a paragraph in the 
* Contributions to Ornithology, 1849, p. 135. 
t Field, 1908, Vol. CXII., p. 540. 
X Trans. Nat. Hist. Soc. Glasg., 1905, Vol. VIII., p. 52. 
§ Trans. D. and G. Nat. Hist. Soc, November 10th, 1888. 
