Fig. 52. Wing of Wilson's Snipe. 

 Seen from below, sliowing barred axillaries. (Original.) 



WATER BIRDS. ' 179 



lime. The male alone is supposed to indulge in this pastime, but I am not 

 aware that this is anything better than an inference. 



The food is obtained largely by probing in the wet ground in the man- 

 ner of the Woodcock, but apparently this species prefers wetter ground 

 than the Woodcock, at all events the holes or "borings" are seldom visible, 

 even in places where Snipe are breeding regularly. But the bird also 

 eats large numbers of insects and other invertebrates for which it does not 

 probe. In eleven stomachs of this species examined by Professor Aughey 

 of Nebraska, there were found 678 insects. 412 of which were locusts (1st 

 Rep. U. S. Entom. Com., App. 2, p. 51). 



Neither of the common names, English Snipe nor Jack Snipe, is strictly 

 correct. The first is a com- _ _ 



plete misnomer, since our 

 species is distinctly American; 

 the other is applied with equal 

 frequency to the Pectoral Sand- 

 piper or Grass Snipe, which it ^''^^^^^'^^^^f/'jY'^-^J^iL'^-Vi!] 

 slightly reseml)les. ,^*^^A^^ ^^ 



The nest is invariably placed 

 on the ground, in wet places, 

 and consists merely of a hollow 

 among the herbage, only slightly lined with grasses and leaves. The eggs, 

 usually four, are olive gray or olive brown, heavily spotted with deep 

 brown and purplish gray and average 1.55 by 1.09 inches. 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 



Top of head black, with a median stripe of bufTy white, and a similar one from nostril 

 over eye to nape; a dusky bar from bill to eye; chin white and unspotted in spring, buffy 

 brown, more or less streaked, in autumn; neck all around, and upper breast, buffy brown, 

 streaked with dark brown or black; upper parts brownish black or black, the scapulars 

 and interscapulars edged with creamy white in spring, rufous in autimin, most of the back 

 speckled or barred with rufous or buff; lower breast and belly white; sides and axillars 

 narrowly barred with black and white; tail barred with black and rufous, tips of feathers 

 often white. Sexes alike and seasonal changes not great, though the autumn dress is 

 much redder or browner. Length 10 to 12 inches; wing 4.90 to 5.60; cuhnen 2.50 to 2.70. 



93. Red-breasted Snipe. Macrorhamphus griseus griseus {Gmel.). (231) 



Synonyms: Dowitcher (Deutscher), Brown-back, Grey Snipe, Gray-back. — Scolopax 

 grisea, Gmel., — Scolopax noveboracensis, Wils., Aud., and others. 



Known by its general resemblance to Wilson's Snipe, but the lower 

 back and rump white, mostly unspotted, and the under parts mainly 

 cinnamon or buffy brown. 



Distribution. — Eastern North America, breeding far north; south in 

 winter to the West Indies and Brazil. 



This is a bird of the shore, not of the bog; moreover it is usually found 

 in flocks, running about in plain sight on the open mud or sand, in all 

 which it is entirely unlike Wilson's Snipe. 



This does not seem to be a common species in Michigan. Dr. Gibbs 

 saw a small flock in Kalamazoo county. May 21, 1888; Major Boies says 

 it is occasionally seen in Hillsdale and Lenawee counties, and that he 

 observed a few in the spring on the shores of the west side of Neebish 

 Island (1892-1894). One was killed by J. Claire Wood on a mud flat 



