Life histories of North American shore birds, Part 1 (of 2)Bent, Arthur Cleveland
Science
Life histories of North American shore birds, Part 1 (of 2)
Bent, Arthur Cleveland
Birds -- Behavior; Shore birds -- North America
V. Russon, the Estonian ornithologist, also observed the flight on a
marsh near Kurkull, in Estonia, and noticed that the snipe rose high in
the air and gradually descended again after a flight of several hundred
yards. He compares the sound to the words: "_Lok-toggi, lok-toggi,
lok-toggi_," which certainly agree with the impression given by Wolley's
graphic description. He says the local names current in the district are
derived from the resemblance the bird's notes bear to the rattle of a
dilapidated wagon wheel. In the night the jack snipe is silent, but the
display begins again with the first glimmering of dawn, but does not as
a rule last long. The note described by Naumann he only heard on two
occasions just before the bird settled in the swamp and believed it to
be caused by rapid snapping of the bill.
_Nesting._--Like the common snipe, the jack snipe breeds in the marshes,
choosing a slight hollow in a fairly dry, grassy, or sedge-grown spot,
but close to open swamp. Wolley describes the five nests seen by him as
being 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." It is an extremely close sitter, not stirring from its
eggs till almost trodden on, while one bird actually allowed Wolley to
touch it with his hand before it flew. The breeding season is late, for
eggs are rarely met with before mid-June and have been recorded
throughout July and even in August.
Ralph Chislett (1927) has published his recent experience with the
nesting habits of the jack snipe, from which the following is quoted:
The wide marsh stretched for a number of miles between the
birch-clad slopes of some low hills. From the hillsides, at
intervals, open sheets of water of varying dimensions could be
seen, and a fringe of the birch forest stretched almost down to a
small, peaty pool. Through the woodland fringe a stream hurried,
clear and cold with melted snow from the hill. Leaving the stream
at a place where yellow globe-flowers grew in profusion, we
followed the ridges of soft ground which intersected the marsh.
Progress was impeded by scrub-willow, while hummocks of moss and
mounds of crowberry and vaccinium overlay the peat foundation of
the ridge, many of the hummocks being white with cloudberry blooms.
Between the ridges in the marshy tracts grass grew thinly through
the moss, and still more thinly in the centers, where our feet were
brought up firmly at a depth of eighteen inches by the still frozen
bottom. Later in the summer the marshes would probably be deeper.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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