228 



BIRDS OF AMERICA 



gular and entertaining. It breeds on the northern 

 borders of the United States and north to the 

 Arctic Sea. On the Magdalen Islands I have 

 watched it with both amusement and amaze- 

 ment. The background is of the mossy bogs 

 and marshes, interspersed with shallow ponds 

 and clumps of small spruce. There, in May and 

 June, we may see and hear the male bird darting 

 about in wide circlings up in the sky, like a sort 

 of feathered meteor, producing with its wings a 

 humming, murmuring sound, not imlike that 

 accompanying the flight of the " \\'histler '' or 

 Golden-eye. Then the mode of the performance 

 changes. The singular, long-billed creature now 

 flies low, emitting a vocal yel])ing or cackling, 

 in general form not \ery different from that of 

 the Yellow-legs, only continuous, lasting for 

 several minutes at a spell. Presently it alights 

 on a spruce tree or a stub and continues its 

 vociferations. 



Possibly the female may indulge also in the 

 circling and winnowing performance, for I have 

 seen two or more birds at a time executing this, 

 and in one case we thus traced a bird to its nest. 

 Watching where it alighted, after much flying 

 around, a member of our party flushed it from 

 a nest of four handsomely marked, pointed eggs, 

 in the grass near a little bush. I embraced the 

 opportunitv to set the camera by the nest, with 



Photo by H. K. Job Courtesy of Outing Pub. Co. 



WILSON'S SNIPE ON NEST 



thread attached, and thus secured some inter- 

 esting pictures. 



The usual haunts of this Snipe are open 

 meadows or fresh-water marshes, where the 

 ground is wet and soft, and where there is grass 

 enough to conceal it. It migrates down across 

 the United States from mid-September to freez- 

 ing-up time, and is much hunted. Flushing 

 suddenly from the grass, it darts off with rapid, 

 erratic fli.ght, uttering reiterated squeaky notes, 

 commonly represented as scaif', scaip, or escape, 

 suiting the action to the word. It winters from 

 the Southern States to as far south as Brazil. 



On the Louisiana marshes, in the winter of 

 1915-16, I found it very abundant. Usually it 

 is found in scattered parties on the meadows, but 

 here I found it in large flocks, sometimes noting 

 several hundred in flight in a compact mass. 

 Smaller parties, or " wisps,'' say of twenty to 



Drawing by R. I. Brasher 



WILSON'S SNIPE (i nat. size) 

 A favorite with sportsmeti 



