JACK SNIPE. 
153 
j\Ir, Davenport reports that, in December, 1876 or ’77, a wisp of seventy to a 
hundred Snipes occupied, for a few days, a field at Billesdon which had become 
almost inundated during heavy rain. This is certainly the greatest assemblage 
I have heard of in the county. On 31st Aug., 1881, ]\Ir. Davenport flushed 
one out of some wet rushes at Skeffington ; and, although this is a very early 
date, it has been beaten by Mr. Macaulay, who saw two at Saddington 
Reservoir, loth July, 1885, and shot one at the same place, 3rd Aug., 1886. 
Again, after the hard winter of 1887-8, he saw two on the Smeeton Brook, 
so late as 16th and 22nd April. I have seen it and known it to occur so 
close to Leicester as the Abbey Meadow, Aylestone Fields, Knighton, and, 
according to Mr. W. A. Evans, near Soar Lane Mill. 
Harley observed : — “ Occasionally it nestles and breeds in the swampy 
parts of the margins of Grrohy Pool, as I am informed by Mr. Chaplin. A 
few years since the bird nestled in Bradgate Park, on a rough piece of 
ground intersected by rushes, situated between the old stables (now no more) 
and the residence of the park keeper.” Adams appears also to have told him 
that it annually bred on the northernmost side of the Park. This is the 
only record I had until Mr. N. C. Curzon wrote me that ‘‘ the nest of a 
‘ Full Snipe,’ with eggs, was found in a meadow near the River Soar, on 
August 5th, 1881, and seen for some time after until accidentally destroyed,” 
which, if no mistake has been made, is an extraordinarily late date. 
In Rutland. — As in Leicestershire, but I have no record of its breeding. 
JACK SNIPE, Limnocryptes gallimda (Linmeus). 
“ Half Snipe,” “ Judcock.” 
An autumn visitant, sparingly distributed, and leaving us early in the 
spring, to breed in Northern Europe, etc. — I have seen some mounted speci- 
mens, which were shot by ’Mr. Samuel Bevans in the Abbey Meadow, sometime 
about the year 1877. A specimen was caught in the “allotment gardens,” 
close to Lancaster Street, Leicester, on 20th Oct., 1884, and presented to the 
Museum. Mr. Davenport informs me that, in 1885, he “shot one out of 
some thistles at Lowesby, on 16th Sept., — a very early date.” Mr. ^Macaulay 
remarks the increasing rarity of the “Jacks,” but, in the winter of 1885-6, 
it was unusually abundant, so close to Leicester as at Knighton and Rowley 
Fields, from whence I procured several examples. On 13th April, 1888, I saw 
a small Snipe get up quite silently from the old river at Aylestone, and 
believe it to have been a “ Jack,” and if so it would be a late date for this 
bird to be with us. 
In Rutland. — As in Leicestershire. — Mr. Horn shot several in November, 
1887. 
