78 BULLETIN 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



24, New Haven, November 26, and Portland, November 28; New 

 York, Shelter Island, November 10, Stephentown, November 16, 

 Plattsburg, November 20, Brooklyn, November 25, Wyandance, De- 

 cember 1, and Lawrence, December 8; New Jersey, Camden, Novem- 

 ber 8, Demarest, November 17, Englewood, November 24, Mahwah, 

 November 26, Morristown, November 29, and Bloomfield, Novem- 

 ber 30; Pennsylvania, Renovo, October 23, Erie, November 14, 

 Beaver, November 28, and Berwyn, December 6; Maryland, Barron 

 Springs, November 27, and Cumberland, December 12; and District 

 of Columbia, Washington, December 30. 



Casual records. — The woodcock has been detected outside of its 

 regular range on a few occasions, as follows : Bermuda, Hamilton, 

 October 1842 and probably one at Hungry Bay, a few years later; 

 Keewatin, York Factory, last of August; northern Saskatchewan, 

 Black River, August, 1892 ; and Montana, Billings, October 23, 1917. 



Egg dates. — New York : 20 records, April 4 to May 29 ; 10 records, 

 April 11 to 25. Pennsylvania and New Jersey; 22 records, March 

 23 to May 1; 11 records, March 30 to April 17. Indiana and Illi- 

 nois: 26 records March 26 to May 30; 13 records April 15 to 28. 

 North Carolina: 2 records February 18 and March 29. Texas: 

 1 record January 20. 



CAPELLA GALLINAGO GALLINAGO (Linnaeus) 



EUROPEAN SNIPE 



HABITS 



The European bird is so closely related to, being regarded now as 

 only subspecifically distinct from, our Wilson snipe that I shall not 

 attempt to write its full life history. The two birds resemble each 

 other so closely in all their habits that this would involve useless 

 repetition of much that I have written about the American bird. 



The European snipe owes its place on our list to its occurrence, 

 probably casually, in Greenland. There is a specimen in the British 

 Museum that is supposed to have come from Canada, but its history 

 is doubtful. The snipe that breeds in Iceland and the Faroe 

 Islands has been separated, under the name faeroeensis, as subspe- 

 cifically distinct from the bird breeding in Great Britain and in con- 

 tinental Europe. It seems quite likely that the Greenland records 

 should be referred to this form. 



Courtship. — Much study has been given to this subject by 

 European observers and differences of opinion still exist as to how 

 the curious winnowing sound or bleating is produced. While the 

 normal time for hearing this is during the spring months, it has 

 been heard in February, during the summer and even occasionally 

 in the fall. Rev. Henry H. Slater (1898) writes: 



