62 2 RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 



of the Atlantic it is of rare occurrence in the South of Greenland. 

 It breeds on the vast morasses round Hudson Bay, and about as far 

 south as lat. 44° N., migrating along the east coast ; but west of 

 the Mississippi valley a slightly larger form prevails, with somewhat 

 longer bill and brighter coloration in summer, and for this American 

 ornithologists have adopted the name scolopaceus. Both forms 

 occur in winter in the Gulf States and among the West Indian 

 Islands, while it is admitted that birds undistinguishable from those 

 of the Atlantic race occur on the Barren grounds and in Alaska — 

 the summer-quarters of the western form — as well as down the 

 Pacific side of America. For the purposes of the present work we 

 may unite the two under one heading, and say that the Red-breasted 

 Snipe breeds throughout the Fur countries, migrating in winter as 

 far south as Brazil on the east side and Chile on the west, while a 

 few wanderers cross the Pacific to Japan and North-eastern Siberia. 

 On Long Island, near New York — where the bird is known by the 

 name of " Dowitcher " — it arrives towards the end of April, and 

 within a month the most northern of its breeding-grounds have 

 been reached. 



According to Messrs. Dall MacFarlane, Nelson, and others, the 

 4 eggs are laid in June in some slight hollow in a tussock near a 

 lake or marsh-pool ; their colour is greenish-grey or brownish-olive, 

 blotched with dark umber: measurements 175 by i'22 in. The 

 young are on the wing by the end of July, and early in August the 

 adults begin to lose their red breeding-plumage, while by September 

 they have assumed their grey winter-garb, and have formed large 

 flocks. Owing to its tameness this species affords no sport, and if 

 disturbed merely utters a short iveet on taking flight, soon settling 

 down again by the side of the water, in which it seeks the small 

 insects, worms and marine bivalves which constitute its food. 



The adult male in summer has the crown blackish, mottled with 

 tawny-brown ; feathers of the mantle blackish, with fulvous edgings; 

 shaft of the first quill pure white ; upper tail-coverts and tail barred 

 with black on white and rufous ; under-parts ruddy-brown, with a few- 

 spots on the throat and breast ; axillaries and under wing-coverts 

 white, barred or mottled with dull black ; bill dark olive ; legs and 

 feet pale olive. Length of the male 10 in. (bill 2-2), wing 5-5 in. 

 The female is larger but alike in plumage. In winter the general 

 plumage is grey, and, except for its size and length of bill, the bird 

 then superficially resembles a Dunlin in the dress of that season. 

 The young bird is much greyer than the adult, and only the margins 

 of the feathers of the mantle are rufous. 



