[See JACK sb.1 29, 33 b.] A small species of snipe, Scolopax (Gallinago) gallinula; also called half-snipe. Also applied to the common American or Wilson’s snipe, Gallinago Wilsoni, the Dunlin, Tringa alpina (Shetland), and the pectoral sandpiper of N. America, Tringa maculata.
1663. Killigrew, Parson’s Wed., III. ii. in Com. & Trag. (1664), 109. Provide me then the Chines fry’d, and the Salmon Calvered … and an Assembly of Woodcocks, and Jack-snipes.
1766. Pennant, Zool. (1768), II. 359–60. The Jacksnipe…. Its weight is less than two ounces, inferior by half to that of the snipe.
1883. G. B. Grinnell, in Century Mag., Oct., 921/1. It [the Wilson’s snipe] very closely resembles the jack snipe of Europe.
1889. R. S. S. Baden-Powell, Pigsticking, 52. Like the particular tussock always tenanted by a jack snipe.
