278 MACRORHAMPHUS GRISEUS. 



toe f\-, its claw -f^; second toe J-f, its claw -^ ; third toe I, 

 its claw fV ; fourth toe 44-, its claw -fa. 



Female. — The female is similar to the male, but some- 

 what larger. 



Length to end of tail lOf inches ; wing from flexure 6 ; 

 tail 2% ; bill 2\ ; tarsus 1 -fe; middle toe and claw 1^-. 



Habits. — Of the habits of this species, considered as a 

 British bird, nothing is known. Montagu first recorded its 

 occurrence in England, having obtained a male which was 

 shot in the beginning of October on the coast of Devonshire. 

 Another specimen has since been killed in the same county ; 

 a third near Carlisle, in 1835; a fourth at Yarmouth, in 

 1836; and, together with these, two more are mentioned by 

 Mr. Yarrell as having been obtained at Norfolk in 1840. I 

 am not aware of its having been seen in Scotland, aud Mr. 

 Thompson does not include it among the birds of Ireland. 

 Greenland and Sweden are said to be inhabited by it, and it 

 is very abundant in North America. Mr. Audubon, after 

 stating that he met with it in large flocks at the mouths of 

 the Mississippi, in April, 1837, and all along to Galveston 

 Bay, gives the following account of its habits : — 



" Although much more abundant along the coast and in 

 its vicinity, the Red-breasted Snipe is not uncommon in 

 many parts of the interior, especially in autumn ; and I have 

 procured many individuals along the muddy margins of 

 lakes, more than three hundred miles in a direct line from 

 the sea. Its migratory movements are performed with un- 

 common celerity, as many are observed along the coast of 

 New Jersey in April, and afterwards on the borders of the 

 Arctic Sea, in time to rear young, and return to our eastern 

 and middle districts before the end of August. 



" This bird exhibits at times a manner of feeding which 

 appeared to me singular, and which I repeatedly witnessed 

 while at Grande Terre, in Louisiana. While watching their 

 manner of walking and wading along sand-bars and muddy 

 fiats, I saw that as long as the water was not deeper than 

 the length of their bills, they probed the ground beneath 



