190 
British Birds. 
colour is like that of the other Snipes, but the back is beautifully shot with green and 
purple. The Jack Snipe has never been found nesting in Great Britain, and is known 
only as a winter resident. It nests in the high north of Europe and Siberia, migrating 
to China, India and the Mediterranean countries. In habits it resembles the Com- 
mon Snipe, but does not utter any note on rising, from which cause it has often been 
called the ‘ Dumb ’ Snipe. The nest is built in marshy bogs : the eggs are four in 
number, pear-shaped, marked like those of the Common Snipe, and measure from 
about an inch-and-three-eighths to an inch-and-three-quarters in length. 
As already noticed, this species may be distinguished from 
the Snipes by the transverse markings on the head, and by the 
THE WOODCOCK. 
( Scolopax rusticula.) 
notches or bars on the inner web of the primary-quills, which 
only appear on the secondaries 
in the young birds. The tail- 
feathers have a grey band at 
the tip, which is silvery-whitish 
underneath. 
The Woodcock nests in most 
of the wooded districts of Eng- 
land, Scotland and Ireland, and a 
large migration takes place every 
autumn and spring. It breeds 
throughout Central and Northern 
Europe and Asia, as well as in 
Japan and the Himalayas. The 
food of the Woodcock consists of 
worms, for which it probes with 
its long bill in the ground, feeding 
chiefly at night. Every evening in 
the mountains of Alfheim in Nor- 
way a Woodcock used to fly from 
the woods on one side of the lake 
to feed in a marsh on the other side, 
and he came each evening exactly 
at ten o’clock, nor during a whole 
month did I ever notice a couple 
of minutes difference in the time of his passing, so that he was as good as a 
clock to us on our fishing excursions on the lake. 
The nest is a depression in the ground, lined with grass and dead leaves. The eggs 
are four in number, and are more rounded than those of the Snipes, though occasionally 
pear-shaped. The colour is a clay-brown with reddish-brown and purplish-grey spots. 
The length is from an inch-and-five-eighths to an inch-and-seven-eighths. 
The Woodcock. 
