BROWN, OR RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 183 



little fear or suspicion, nor are they at any time so shy as 

 the common Snipe, alighting often within a few rods of the 

 place where their companions have been shot, without ex- 

 hibiting alarm until harassed by successive firing. Besides 

 molusca, they- occasionally vary their fare with vegetable 

 diet, such as the roots of the Zostera marina^ and I have 

 also found in their stomachs the whitish oval seeds of some 

 marsh or aquatic plant ; they likewise, in common with the 

 Sandpipers, and many other wading birds, swallow gravel 

 to assist the trituration of their food. 



The length of the Red-Breasted Snipe is about 11^ inches, (this 

 is the length, at least, of 5 specimens now before me) the male, how- 

 ever, is said to be less. The bill is black towards the point, the re- 

 mainder dull olive ; the epidermis at the base of the bill transversely 

 wrinkled ; its length about 2^ inches, measured from above ; (in 

 young birds 'somewhat shorter.^ The tarsus less than IJ inches. 

 Middle toe, without the nail, about 1 inch. — Winter plumage, with 

 the summit of the head, neck, breast, wing coverts, back and scapu- 

 lars ashy-brown, paler on the latter, with all the feathers darker on 

 the margins and tips ; a band of this color between the bill and the 

 eye. Line over the eye, belly, throat, and thighs white; flanks 

 wliitish, with waving lines of pale brown. Back and scapulars pale 

 brown, with darker tips to the feathers. Rump and lower tail co- 

 verts white, with curving spots of blackish, which become trans- 

 verse bands upon the upper coverts of the tail, of which all the fea- 

 thers are striped with approximating bands of black and white. — 

 Summer plumage, with the top of the head, back of the neck, scapulars 

 and tertiaries, striped and spotted on the margins with ferruginous, 

 with transverse bars of the same color on the longer scapulars and 

 tertiaries. "Wing coverts and secondaries clove-brown ; the former 

 narrowly edged with white, the latter broadly edged and striped 

 down the shafts with the same. Primaries blackish-brown, the shaft 

 of the 1st one white. Middle and hind parts of the back white, the 

 rump marked with round spots of blackish-brown, which, on the tail 

 coverts become transverse bars. Tail with about 10 black bands, 

 broader than the white intermediate ones, the 2 central feathers 

 tinged and tipt with rufous. Line over the eye, and whole under 

 plumage buff, approaching to ferruginous. Sides of the head spotted 



