SNIPES, SANDPIPERS, ETC. 



SNIPES, SANDPIPERS, ETC. 



Order LiniicoUc ; family Scolopacidcc 



HE Snipes, Sandpipers, and the closely allied species which form the family 

 Siolopacidcr of the order of Shore Birds, or Wading Birds, are represented in 

 all the habitable parts of the world, but during the breeding season they are 

 found with few exceptions only in the northern parts of the northern hemi- 

 sphere. There are about one hundred species in the family, about half of which 

 number occur regularly or occasionally in America. 



The members of this family vary greatly in size, shape, and color, but in 

 general they are of small or medium size and never reach the average size of 

 Herons. Usually the bill is long and soft-skinned, generally straight, round- 

 ish, and slim, but sometimes curved either upward or downward and in one 

 species, the Spoon-bill Sandpiper of eastern Asia, the end is spoon-shaped. 

 The head is feathered to the bill. The legs are of moderate length. The wings are normally 

 long, flat, and pointed. The tail is rather short, stiff, broad, and rounded. 



As indicated by the name of the group in which this family has been placed, its members 

 are seldom found far from the shores of bodies of water or from moist lands. They migrate 

 and pass the winter in flocks, but during the breeding season are not gregarious. Like 

 other shore birds, they all, with the exception of the European Green Sandpiper and the 

 American Solitary Sandpiper, nest on the ground. The eggs usually number four, but seldom 

 does a pair succeed in bringing more than two young birds to maturity during a season. 

 The babies are clothed with down when hatched, and are precocial, that is, they are not 

 cared for in the nest by their parents, but are able to run about within a very short time 

 after leaving the shell. 



Many of the species in this group are greatly prized as game birds, and to this fact is 

 due to a large extent the decrease in their numbers. The development of land for agri- 

 cultural purposes has restricted their breeding grounds, and this is an indirect, but neverthe- 

 less another, cause for their lessening numbers. Not only because of their food value are 

 the birds entitled to protection, but also because of their usefulness. They search out and 

 destroy many creatures that are detrimental to man's interests. Among the pests which 

 they eat are grasshoppers, army worms, cutworms, cabbage worms, cotton worms, boll 

 weevils, rice weevils, Texas fever ticks, horseflies, and mosquitoes. 



WOODCOCK 



Philohela minor iCiiiirlin) 



.\. O. r. XumlKi j_S 



Other Names. — American Woodcock ; Woodhen ; 

 Big-headed Snipe; Big Mud Snipe; Blind Snipe: 

 Whistling Snipe ; Wood Snipe ; Night Partridge ; Night 

 Peck ; Timber Doodle ; Hooknm Pake ; Labrador 

 Twister; Bogsucker ; Bog-bird; Pewee ; Whistler; Big- 

 eyes. 



General Description. — Length, ii inches; color 

 above, brown; below, pale orange-brown; head, large; 

 neck, short; eyes, large and set far back and high; bill, 

 7'ery hug and compressed, the lower section shorter 

 than the upper into which it fits at the tip. and the 

 upper section capable of being flexed like a finger; 

 wings, short and rounded ; three outer primaries. 



Set- ( I, lor ri;it<- n 



seylhe-shaped : legs, short and stout with thighs 

 feathered: toes, without webs. 



Color. — .\bovc, finely blended and varied with black, 

 warm browns, gray, and russet, the brown predomi- 

 nating, the gray tending to form streaks above and 

 below shoulders ; forehead, grayish ; three square 

 patehes of black extending from top of eroivii to nape 

 and separated by narrow gray bars: a black stripe frotii 

 gape to eye; chin, whitish; rest of under parts, pale 

 orange-brown with a few black spots on sides of chest; 

 primaries, plain brownish ; bill, brownish flesh color, 

 dusky on ridge and tip ; feet, flesh color ; eye-ring, 

 white; iris, dark brown. 



