Interior of British North America. 131 



Phalaropus fulicarius is also mentioned as seen in high 

 northern latitudes by the Arctic Expeditions ; but simply on 

 this claim I should not have included it in this list, had I not 

 myself received specimens from Hudson's Bay in its fine 

 breeding-plumage. 



97. Gallinago wilsonii. 



My specimen [' Ibis/ vol. iv. p. 9) is considered to be of this 

 species of Snipe, to which also Prof. Baird refers Scolopax 

 drummondii and S. leucurus of the ' Fauna Bor.-Am.' In all the 

 true Snipes which I shot in the interior, I never noticed any 

 distinctions to make me suspect more than one species. In the 

 neighbourhood of Fort Carlton I did not observe the Snipe before 

 May; while the last seen on the Lower Saskatchawan in the 

 autumn was on the 1 st of October. At Red River Settlement 

 I found it on the 29th of April ; but as that was in a late spring, 

 I should imagine that it usually arrives earlier. This Snipe 

 performs the same aerial evolutions which have been observed in 

 the English bird. I remarked that this was usually done about 

 sunset ; and I have known it continued till an hour and a half 

 later. The noise which the bird makes on these occasions I 

 can only compare to quickly repeated switches (quicker than 

 can be done by the hand) of a withe or cane in the air, which 

 is repeated every half-minute or minute, but with occasional 

 longer intervals. The duration of the sound is about three 

 seconds, and is made (how I do not know, but am inclined to 

 believe it is by the quill-feathers of the wings) as the bird 

 descends rapidly in a vertical direction. I have known this to 

 be done also in mid-day. These observations refer to the end of 

 April and May, which is the love-season. 



Macrorhamphus griseus. 



Macrorhamphus scolopaceus. 



I did not preserve a specimen of the Red-breasted Snipe ; but 

 I examined three which were shot out of a flock of six, near Fort 

 Carlton, in the third week in May. They were all females, and 

 measured 12 in. in length, 5| to 5| in. in the wing, and 2| to 

 2| in. along the ridge of the bill. In the ' Fauna Bor.-Am.^ M. 

 griseus is recorded from Great Bear Lake, under the name of 



