THB SNIPS. 186 



Boath America as far as Chili. Many winter in the marshefl 

 and inundated river-grounds of the Southern States of 

 the Union, where they are seen in the month of February, 

 frequenting springs and boggy thickets; others proceed 

 along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, and eyen penetrate 

 into the equatorial regions. , 



By the second week in March, they begin to revisit the 

 marshes, meadows, and low grounds of the Middle States, 

 and soon after they arrive in New England. In mild and 

 cloudy weather, towards evening, and until the last rays of 

 the setting sun have disappeared from the horizon, we hearj 

 as in the north or Europe, the singular tremulous murmur* 

 ings of the Snipes, making their gyratory rounds so high in 

 the air as scarcely to be visible to the sight. This hum- 

 ming, or rather flickering and somewhat wailing sound, 

 has a great similarity to the booming of the night-hawk; 

 but more resembles the sound produced by quickly and 

 interruptedly blowing into the neck of a large bottle than 

 the whirring of a spinning-wheel. 



But, however difficult and awkward may be our attempts 

 to convey any adequate idea of this quailing murmur, it 

 seems to be, to its agent, an expression of tender feeling or 

 amatory revery, as it is only uttered at the commencement, 

 and during the early part of the pairing season, while 

 hovering over those marshes or river-meadows, which are 

 to be the cradle and doT^icil of their expected progeny, a« 

 they have already been of themselves and their matea. 

 12 



