Dowitcher SHORE AND MARSH BIRDS. 



Eggs : 3-4, olive-gray washed with dull brown, marked on the larger 



end with umber spots and black scratches. 

 Bange: North and middle America; south, in winter, to the West 



Indies and northern South America. 



The true Snipe of sportsmen, which is erroneously called 

 "English Snipe." Wilson's Snipe has many qualities in 

 common with the Woodcock. It is a bird of fresh-water 

 marsh meadows, where it returns in September, and is usu- 

 ally quite plentiful by the middle of October, going south 

 when ice closes its feeding-grounds. It is a nocturnal 

 feeder, and has the habit of soaring into the air at dawn 

 and sunset. Usually, it is only considered from the food 

 standpoint, but it really possesses musical qualities. I only 

 know its peeping cry, that seems to fall from the clouds in 

 the autumn nights when the migrating flocks pass over, 

 but Audubon says that the male and female birds rise into 

 the air, — " now with continued beating of the wings, now 

 in short sailings, until more than a hundred yards high, 

 when they whirl round each other with extreme velocity, 

 and dance as it were to their own music ; for at this junc- 

 ture, and during the space of four or five minutes, you hear 

 rolling notes mingled together, each more or less distinct, 

 perhaps according to the state of the atmosphere. The 

 sounds produced are extremely pleasing, though they fall 

 faintly on the ear." 



Dowitcher: Macrorhamphus griseus. 



Bed-breasted Snipe. 



Length : Varying from 10.25 to 12 inches. 



Male and Female : Bill dark, long and slender like last species, which it 

 generally resembles. *' Riimp and tail white, the former spotted, 

 the latter banded with black." In summer plumage the back 

 is variegated with black, ash, and red, reddish below ; tail 

 barred with dark. In winter it is ash-gray above and whitish 

 below. Feet greenish black. 



Season : A fairly common migrant in August and September. 



Breeds : In the far North. 



Bange : Eastern North America. 



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