THE WILSON SNIPE. 499 



Description. — Adult: Upper parts brownish black, freckled, mottled, 

 barred, and streaked with ochraceous-buff and whitish ; crown and back nearly 

 pure black, the former divided by irregular buffy median line; the scapulars and 

 interscapulars bordered by whitish or cream-buff, on outer margins only ; wings 

 fuscous, the edge including outer web of first primary, white; the greater coverts, 

 secondaries, and sometimes inner primaries narrowly tipped with white; a dark 

 line from eye to bill ; throat whitish ; sides of head and neck and breast ochraceous- 

 buff, finely spotted and streaked, or indistinctly barred with blackish ; belly white, 

 the axillars, sides and flanks strongly barred, — blackish and white ; both tail- 

 coverts and exposed tip of tail strongly ochraceous-buff, or rufous, finely barred 

 with black ; tail-feathers black basally, some of the lateral ones white or white- 

 tipped. Length 10.00-12.00 (254.-304.8); wing 5.00 (127.); tail 2.40 (61.); 

 bill 2.50 (63.5) ; tarsus 1.25 (31.8). The female averages smaller than the male. 



Recognition Marks. — Robin size; general mottled and streaked appearance; 

 long bill used as mud-probe; marsh-skulking habits, and jack, jack notes on 

 rising. 



Nesting. — Not known to breed in Ohio. Nest, on the ground. Eggs, 3 

 or 4, clay-color, olive, or ashy-brown, spotted and blotched with reddish brown 

 or umber. Av. size, 1.58 x 1. 14 (40.1 x 29.). 



General Range. — North and middle America, breeding from the northern 

 Lnited States northward; south in winter to the West Indies and northern South 

 America. 



Range in Ohio. — Common migrant; winter resident in southern part of state, 

 and casually elsewhere ; rare summer resident in northern Ohio. No authentic 

 record of breeding. 



WHENEVER the word "snipe" is uttered we think most naturally of 

 ibis recluse of the inland fens, for he is the Snipe of America. Altho pos- 

 sessing much in common with the European Snipe (G. gallinago) and some- 

 thing with the Woodcock, his wavs are peculiar enough to make him dis- 

 tinctly known to every sportsman. He is rather a disreputable looking 

 fellow, a tatterdemalion in fact, as he bursts out of his bog with an exultant 

 cry of "escape, escape," and flutters his rags in the wind. And as he pur- 

 sues his devious way through the air. jerking hither and thither in most 

 lawless fashion, the gunner could easily believe him an escaped jail-bird, 

 if the stripes of his garments only ran the other way. 



The Wilson Snipe is a bird of the open marsh, a frequenter of the 

 grass\ border stretches, or of the boggy margins of the "spring branch." 

 Here he lies pretty closely by day. but as dusk comes he bestirs himself 

 and g< es pattering about in the shallow water or over the weedy scum-strewn 

 muck, thrusting his beak down rapidly into the ooze and extracting worms 

 or succulent roots. If danger approaches by day. the bird's first instinct is 

 to crouch low. If the sky is clear, it is difficult to dislodge him. for the light 

 blinds him in the air, and he knows that his ragged blacks and browns 

 exactly match the criss-crossed vegetation and interlacing shadows of his 

 present surroundings. If. however, the day be overcast and windy, the bird 



