BROWN, OR RED-BREASTED SNIPE. ISt 



with Totanus, and is in many respects allied to Heteropoda (Trin- 

 ga semipalmata) both in the feet, bill, wings, and general plu- 

 maffe. 



BROWN, OR RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 



(Scolopax grisea, Gmel. Lath. Ind. Orn. ii. p. 724. sp. 33. Temm. 

 ii. p. 679. BoNAP. Syn. No. 267. Am. Orn. iv. p. 51. pi. 23. fig. 

 3. Brown Snipe, Penn. Arct. Zool. ii. p. 464. No. 369. Macro- 

 rampJms griseus, Leach. Cat. Brit. Mus. [winter plumage.] — 

 Scolopax novehoracensis , Lath. Gmel. Syst. i. p. 658. Red-breast- 

 ed Snipe, Pexx. Arct. Zool. ii. p. 464. No. 368. Wilsox, vii. p. 

 45. pi. 58. fig. 1. [summer dress.] Richard. North. Zool. ii. p. 

 398. (Liviosa.) Phil. Museum, No. 3932.) 



Sp. Charact. — Rump and tail white, the former spotted, and the 

 latter thickly banded with black ; shaft of the first primary white. 

 — Summer plumage, black, varied with rufous and cinereous ; 

 superciliary stripe, and ail below rufous. Winter dress, chiefly 

 cinereous, beneath white. Young, with the neck and breast 

 mostly cinereous, and the back feathers with broad rufescent bor- 

 ders but without marginal spots ; from the breast to the tail, below, 

 white, tinged with rufous. 



The Red-Breasted Snipe begins to visit the sea coast of 

 New Jersey early in April, arriving from its winter quarters 

 probably in tropical America. After spending about a 

 month on the muddy marshes, and sand-flats, left bare by 

 the recess of the tides, a more powerful impulse than that 

 of hunger impels the wandering flocks towards their natal 

 regions in the north, where secluded from the prying eye 

 of man, and relieved from molestation, they pass the period 

 of reproduction, the wide range of which continues, with- 

 out interruption, from the borders of Lake Superior to the 

 shores of the Arctic Sea. On the plains of the Saskatche- 

 wan, according to Richardson, they feed much upon leeches 

 16 



