62 THE GAME BIRDS 
iz.) DOW LTECHER: 
RED-BREASTED SNIPE. BROWN-BACK. 
Macrorhamphus griseus. 
Back brownish-black, mottled with light 
reddish-brown. Under parts of the same light 
color, shading to almost white on the belly 
inside of wings white, marked with sack 
rump white, showing very plainly during 
flieht; tail black, barred with white. In 
winter the general tone is grayish, mottled 
with darker; white below, shaded with gray- 
ish on the breast, sides and throat; bill and 
legs greenish-yellow; eyes dark reddish- 
brown; length about 11 inches, of which 2} 
inches is bill; extent 18 inches. 
Supposed to inhabit only Eastern North 
America, and to be replaced in the West by 
a variety CM. yg. scolopaceus) which rarely 
comes East. This latter bird differs only in 
averaging larger in size; the bill averages 
longer, and the belly is cinnamon-brown, in- 
stead of whitish. The variety makers have 
decreed that they shall be twain, and they are 
so laid down; but I doubt if any average 
sportsman could distinguish them if laid side 
by side. They are both excellent game birds, 
and finely flavored, coming to decoys nicely, 
and alight ina bunch. ‘Those that are not 
killed when a flock is fired upon, wheel 
around over their dead and wounded com- 
rades, returning again and again, although 
