450 SCOLOPACID^. 



it is called in France la Sourde, " deaf." In tlie same 

 country it is known also as " St. Martin's Snipe," from 

 the time of its arrival in that country, JN'ovember 11 ; 

 with us it is an earlier visitor, coming about the second 

 week in September. 



A few instances are recorded of the Jack Snipe having 

 been seen in this country at a season which w^ould lead to 

 the inference that it occasionally breeds here ; but no 

 instance of its doing so has been ascertained as a fact. 

 It leaves us early in April. 



THE BEOWN SKIPE. 



MACRORAMPHUS GRISEUS. 



Winter plumage — Head and neck ash-brown varied with darker brown; scapulars 

 and wing-coverts dusky ash-brown margined with grey; lower part of the back 

 white, spotted on the tail-coverts with black ; quills dusky ash-brown ; tail 

 black, with white bars ; under plumage nearly white. Summer— Ch&ek?,, tip 

 of the head, and back of the neck, pale chestnut-brown streaked with black ; 

 upper part of the back, scapulars, and tertials, nearly black streaked with 

 light chestnut; under plumage reddish chestnut spotted and barred with 

 black ; irides hazel ; feet greenish brown ; claws black. Length ten to eleven 

 inches. Eggs unknown. 



A RARE visitor to Great Britain, but said to be common in 

 the United States of America, except during the breeding 

 season, when it is supposed to go farther north. It is a 

 gregarious bird, in habits resembling the Sandpipers, rather 

 than the true Snipes. 



