WILSON'S SNIPE. n: 



pall, rapidly repeated as it flies over the water. After 

 gaining headway it sails for some distance, when its wide- 

 Btretched wings show a white bar or band. 



The Spotted Sandpiper arrives from the South late 

 in April and remains until Oetober. It nests in the lat- 

 ter half of May, laying four pear-shaped eggs, in eolor 

 white or buff, thiekly spotted and speekled with ehopo- 

 late, ehiefly at the larger end. The young, like those of 

 all Snipe, are born with a eovering of downy feathers, 

 and ean run as soon as dry. The egg is, therefore, large 

 in proportion to the size of the bird, and measures 1*25 by 

 •95 inches. (See Fig. 24«.) 



Unlike the two preeeding birds, Wilson's or the 

 English Snipe is not a summer resident in the Middle 

 Wilson's Snipe States, but as a rule nests from north- 

 inago delicata. ern New England northward, though 

 Plate ix. there are reeords of its breeding as 



far south as Conneetieut and Pennsylvania. It migrates 

 northward in March and April, and the return journey 

 oepurs during September and Oetober. It is not a true 

 shore bird, but frequents fresh-water marshes and mead- 

 ows, and in rainy April weather, when the lowlands be- 

 eome more or less flooded, it may be found in plaees where 

 few persons would think of looking for Snipe. 



Like the Woodeopk, "Wilson's Snipe probes the mud 

 for food, and when on the ground among the grasses its 

 colors and pattern of coloration so elosely resemble its 

 surroundings that it is almost invisible. 



When flushed, it utters a startled scaip, and darts 

 quickly into the air, flying at first in so erratie a manner 

 that it has become famous among sportsmen as a diffi- 

 cult mark. 



Like the Nighthawk, Wilson's Snipe sometimes dives 

 earthward from high in the air, making as he falls a 

 sound which Minot pompares to that produped by throw- 

 15 



