JACK-SNIPE. 
357 
put off its eggs, the man who saw it was to pass on the 
word, and the whole line was to stand whilst I went to 
examine the eggs and take them at once, or observe the 
bearings of the spot for another visit, as might be neces¬ 
sary. We had not been many hours in the marsh, when 
I saw a bird get up, and I marked it down. * * The 
nest was found. * * A sight of the eggs as they lay un¬ 
touched raised my expectations to the highest pitch. I 
went to the spot where I had marked the bird, put it up 
again, and again saw it, after a short low flight, drop sud¬ 
denly into cover. Once more it rose a few feet from where 
it had settled. I fired ! and in a minute had in my hand 
a true Jack-Snipe, the undoubted parent of the nest of 
eggs ! * * As usual, I took measures to let the whole party 
have a share in my gratification before I again gave the 
word to advance. In the course of the day and night I 
found three more nests and examined the birds of each. 
One allowed me to touch it with my hand before it rose, 
and another only got up when my foot was within six 
inches of it. It was very fortunate I was able to identify 
so fine a series of eggs, for they differ considerably from 
one another. I was never afterwards able to see a nest 
myself, though I beat through numbers of swamps ; seve¬ 
ral with eggs mostly hard sat upon were found by people 
cutting hay in boggy places in July. I have spent a good 
many hours this present year (1854) in the same Kharto 
Uoma without finding one, though I had plenty of men 
and boys in good working order. There have certainly 
been but few Jack-Snipes in the country this season. 
“The nest of the 17th, and the 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. * * It was not 
