SNIPES, SANDPIPERS, ETC. 



forty, were frequently dartint:; about, espeeially 

 toward evening. Near the camp of Messrs. 

 Ward and Mcllhenny, where I .stayed, there were 

 a series of muddy flats, interspersed with bunches 

 or patclies of grass, which were fairly ahve with 

 Snipe. In the morning I could see one or more 

 of them lying beneath many a tussock dozing. 

 Unless flushed, they stayed there until sundown, 

 or till it became o\ercast, whereupon they could 

 be seen running about oxer the open mud and 

 shallow water, busily probing for worms. By 

 building a blind at the edge of one of these 



flats and carefully awaiting sutlden intervals of 

 sunshine late in the afternoon, I .secured motion 

 pictures and others of them thus engaged. 



Herbert K. Jov.. 

 The food of Wilson's Sni])e is known to in- 

 clude crane-flies ("leather-jackets"), locusts, 

 grasshoppers, crawfishes, and the predacious div- 

 ing beetles which cause trouljle in fish hatch- 

 eries and destroy nuich of the natural insect f((0(l 

 of fishes. To the extent that it preys u[)on these 

 insect forms — and that is \ery considerable — 

 it must be reckoned a useful bird. 



DOWITCHER 

 Macrorhamphus griseus griseus {Ciiii-liii) 



A. O. U. .Number 2ji Sn: Clor I'l.ite .i i 



Other Names. — Robin Snipe; Sea Pigeon; Driver; sides, thickly speckled witli dusk.v ; a series of dusky 



Red-lireasted Snijie (summer) ; Brown Snipe (sum- specks from gape throu.gh and behind eye; bill and feet, 



mer) ; Brown-tiack (summer); Gray Snipe (winter); dull dusky-greenish; iris, brown. In Winter: Fore- 



Gray-back (winter). head, head, neck, back, shoulders, and long inner 



General Description. — Length, ii inches. Color secondaries, dark gray, the featliers on back with dusky 





Photograph by H. K. Job 



DOWITCHERS 



A flock on Breton Island Reservation 



above, in summer, brownisli-cinnamon ; in winter, slate- 

 gray. Bill lon,g and slender, ui)per section overlapping 

 under. Found on sand bars and mud flats, and not in 

 bogs. 



Color. — In Summer: Ground color of neck, head, 

 breast, and upper parts, brownish-cinnamon ; head and 

 neck, narrowly streaked with dusky-brown ; feathers 

 of back, with broad blackish-brown centers; rump, 

 upper coverts, and tail, white, barred with dusky: wings, 

 grayish-dusky, the coverts edged with lighter ; second- 

 aries, broadly edged and tipped with white; under 

 parts, rufous, paler or whitish behind ; breast and 



centers and paler edges; lower back, rump, and tail. 

 f<i(re zchite. with roundish spots of dusky; win.g-coverts. 

 like back; secondaries, white-edged and -tipped; pri- 

 maries dusky-brown; tinder parts, white; throat, sides 

 of breast, and sides, strongly shaded with gray; a 

 dusky stripe from gape through and behind eye; the 

 white stripe between this and crown, pronounced ; cheeks 

 and side of head, mottled with pale dusky: lower tail- 

 coverts with roundish dusky spots ; bill, dusky, greenish 

 at base; legs, dully greenish-gray; iris, brown with 

 white crescent below. 



Nest and Eggs. — Ne.st : A depression in the ground 



