The Snipe. 295 



According to Dr. Richardson, all the thick and swampy black- 

 spruce forests between Canada and the Arctic Sea abound with 

 this bird, and considerable numbers exist in the severest seasons 

 as high as the 67th parallel. I am informed by Mr. Townsend 

 that it is also plentiful on the Rocky Mountains and the plains of 

 the Columbia, from which parts I have obtained specimens differ- 

 ing in nothing from others procured in Maine and Labrador. I 

 have also compared those in the Edinburgh Museum, which Mr. 

 Douglass was pleased to name Tetrao Franklinii, with several of 

 my own, and feel perfectly confident that they are all of one and 

 the same species. 



Description. — Tail of sixteen feathers, rounded ; male with the 

 upper parts transversely banded with brownish black and light 

 gray ; wings variegated with dusky and greyish yellow ; quills 

 brown the outer webs of the primaries mottled with yellowish ; 

 tail blackish brown, tipped with reddish yellow ; lower parts black ; 

 the feathers near the throat with a white spot near the end ; a 

 band of white spots behind the eye ; on the breast the feathers 

 with a broad subterminal spot, and the lower tail coverts largely 

 tipped with white ; female with the upper parts as in the male, 

 but more broadly barred ; head ; sides of neck, fore-neck and 

 anterior part of breast, yellowish red, barred with brownish black ; 

 lower parts greyish black, barred with reddish white ; tail 

 minutely mottled, and tipped with reddish brown. 



Male 151— Female 15^ = 21. 



Breeds from the northern part of New York to Labrador as 

 well as from Canada to the Arctic Sea, Columbia River ; partially 

 migratory in winter. (Audubon's Synopsis, page 203.) 



The Snipe, [Scolopax Wihonii.) 



The Snipe, so highly prized by sportsmen, is common through- 

 out the United States and the British Provinces, its breeding 

 grounds, however, being in the northern portions of these extensive 

 regions. In the Southern States it is not seen in summer, but in 

 winter is exceedingly abundant ; we are informed that occasionally 

 a stray Snipe is to be met with in Canada, so late in the season 

 as the beginning of January, but such must be regarded as strag- 

 glers who have loitered behind long after the great body of the 

 species has returned to the southern climes. 



