350 RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 



versant witli the Sandpipers that the specimens described by Say were 

 still in the winter dress, and we may conclude that the changes in this 

 species are analogous to those of its allies. 



Several specimens of both sexes that we shot in New Jersey, evidently 

 young birds, as they were killed at the same season as the adults de- 

 scribed, are considerably paler and duller, the tints being blended and 

 ill defined : the white even of the throat is dingy, the quills and tail- 

 feathers almost uniformly dusky and destitute of margins : they have 

 not the least trace of the outer toe membrane. 



SCOLOPAX GRISEA. 



RED-BREASTED SNIPE.* 



[Plate XXIII. Fig. 3.] 



Scolopax grisea, Gmel. Syst. i., p. 658, Sp. 27. Lath. Ind. ir., p. 724, Sp. 33. 

 Siippl. I., p. 444, Sp. 42, winter dress. Temm. Man. Orn. ii., p. 679. Nob. Obs. 

 Wils. Sp. 205. Id. Cat. and Sijn. Birds U. S. Sp. 267. Id. Speech. Comp. Sp. 

 206. Id. Monog. Scolop. in Obs. Cuv. p. 115, Sp. 2. — Scolopax noveboracen.ns, 

 Gmel. Syst. i., p. 658, Sp. 28. Lath. Ind. ii., p. 723, Sp. 32, summer dress. — 

 Scolopax Paykulli, Nilss. Orn. Suec. ii., p. 106, Sp. 186, tab. xi. — Scolopax leu- 

 cophcea, Vieill. Gal. Ois. ii., p. 110, tab. 291, changing to the summer dress. — 

 Scolopax grisea, Vieill. Nouv. Vict, winter dress. — Totanus griseus, Vieill. 

 Nouv. Diet, winter dress. — Totanus ferrugineicollis, Vieill. summer dress. — 

 Totanus noveboraeensis, Sabine, Zool. App. Franklin's Exp. p. 687, summer 

 dress. — Macroramphus griseus, Leach, Cat. Mus. Brit. — Limosa scolopacea, Say, 

 in Long's Exp. ii., p. 170, winter plumage. — Beccaccia grigia, Ranz. Elem. iii., 

 pt. VIII., p. 162, Sp. 5. — Becassine grise, Vieill. Nouv. Diet, iii., p. 358. — Becas- 

 sine ponctu^e, Temm. loc. cit. — Brown Snipe, Penn. Arcf. Zool. ii., Sp. 369. Lath. 

 Si)n. v., p. 154, Sp. 26. Id. Gen. Hist, ix., p. 216, Sp. 25. Mont. Orn. Diet, 

 with a good fig, in the Suppl. winter dress. — Red-breasted Snipe, Penn. Arct. 

 Zool. II., Sp. 368. Lath. Syn. v., p. 153, Sp. 26. Id. Gen. Hist, ix., p. 215, Sp. 

 24, summer dress. — Grauhraune Schnepfe, Meter & Wolf, Tasch. iii., p. 46. 



We can add nothing to the excellent account given by our prede- 

 cessor of this remarkable species, but as he only figured it in its summer 

 and more familiar dress, our representation of the winter plumage will 

 not be thought superfluous upon referring to our elaborate synonymy, 

 and still less if we bear in mind that even a distinct genus has been 

 instituted for it in this vesture, when it chanced to come under more 

 critical inspection. We shall therefore merely dwell upon the literary 



* See Wilson's American Ornithology, Red-breasted Snipe, Scolopax novebora- 

 eensis, Vol. II., p. 331, pi. 58, fig. 1, for the summer dress. 



