WILSON SNIPE 355 



in hunting it is possible to "mark down" the birds which alight and 

 follow tliem up systematically one after the other. In this manner it 

 is sometimes possible to secure a dozen birds in a relatively small area. 

 "In taking flight and especially if alarmed the Snipe spreads its 

 tail like a fan and with spasmodic semicircular sweeps . . . swings it 

 from side to side with a peculiar jerky motion. When [the bird is] 

 suddenly frightened into flight, as by a dog or gunner, these sweeps 

 are repeated with amazing rapidity and the result is a series of gyra- 

 tions ..." (Betten, 1904, p. 265). Eaton's epitome of the habits of 

 the Wilson Snipe is as follows: 



When no enemy is near he walks nimbly, carrying the head and body 

 erect with the bill pointing well downward, but often assumes more the atti- 

 tude of a Sandpiper and gleans from the surface especially when foraging 

 along the shore of a lake or stream as he often does in the dusk of evening. 

 When his foes appear he crouches so motionless that it is impossible to dis- 

 tinguish him among the grasses, and when too closely pressed springs suddenly 

 into the air with a sharp grating call and makes rapidly off in a "rail-fence" 

 course not far above the ground until well out of danger, when he mounts 

 high in the air and circles about for a few minutes finally to pitch headlong 

 into the swamp again, perhaps into the same position from which he was 

 driven (Eaton, 1910, p. 302). 



When flushed the Snipe rises about six feet above the ground 

 before the zig-zag flight is commenced and this is then kept up for 

 about twenty j-ards, after which a straight course is pursued. After 

 straightening out its course it flies on a dead level. In high and 

 scattered brush the birds persist in dodging through it, and when 

 among scattered trees they rise without the characteristic short zig- 

 zags and fly in wide curves between the trees. 



Nesting records of the Wilson Snipe in California are exceedingly 

 rare. The set taken near Tejon Pass, in extreme northern Los 

 Angeles County (J. Mailliard, 1914, p. 261) is the only one as yet 

 definitely recorded from the state. Belding (MS) states that the 

 species breeds at Webber Lake in the northern Sierra Nevada, and 

 Cooper (in Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, 1884, I, p. 190) was informed 

 that it bred at Lake Tahoe. George Neale reports two small young 

 as found at the north end of Lake Tahoe early in August, 1912 ; and, 

 according to the same person, three young were found in Sierra Valley, 

 Plumas County, September 1, 1899 (H. C. Bryant, 1915&, pp. 76, 77). 

 At Lower Klamath Lake in the first week of June, 1914, H. C. Bryant 

 (1914e, p. 232) saw Snipe in nuptial flight, but did not find other 

 evidences of nesting. 



The egg-laying season would appear, from numerous eastern and 

 northern records, to extend from late April through May. The set 

 recorded by Mailliard, in which incubation was nearly complete, and 



