358 
SCOLOPACIDiE. 
long after I heard it that I ascertained that the remark¬ 
able hammering noise in the air was made by the Jack- 
Snipe/' 
Mr. Wolley says that he finds rainy weather or mid¬ 
night the best times to walk birds off their nests, but that 
the gnats are then so tormenting that tar-oil, veils and 
thick leather gloves, are indispensable. It must be re¬ 
membered that in those northern parts there is no dark 
night in summer, and some of the most delightful hours 
of our visit to Norway were spent amongst the numerous 
islands with which its seas are studded, during the calm, 
clear nights of its short but delicious summer One 
night, much to our annoyance, we were preceded by a 
party who were collecting eggs for use, and who, in order 
to insure fresh ones only at their next visit, had now 
wantonly broken all those that were doubtful. 
Were not the eggs figured verified beyond a doubt, no 
one would credit that a bird of such small dimensions 
(not a great deal larger than a sky-lark) could produce 
them, or having produced them could keep them warm. 
They are precisely of the same length as those of the 
snipe, but are of less width across the broadest part. 
The bird weighs about two ounces, the four eggs are 
more than an ounce and-a-half. The great egg of the 
guillemot is one eighth of the weight of the bird; the 
eggs of the Jack-Snipe weigh nearly as much as it does 
itself. 
