RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 



SCOLOPACID^.I 



MACRORHAMPHUS GRISEUS (J. F. Gmelin). 



Explanation of Plate. 



Figure 1. Anderson River Fort, British N. America, June 29, 1864 (parents shot) ; 



R. MacFarlane coll. No. 11357 U.S. National Museum Collection. 



„ 2. Anderson River Fort, British N. America, June 30, 1865 (parents shot) ; 



R. MacFarlane coll. No. 11356 U.S. National Museum Collection. 



This American species is a rare accidental visitor to England and Scotland, 

 no example having been met with in Ireland. 



Me. Howard Saunders describes the geographical distribution of the Red-breasted 

 Snipe as follows * : — " It breeds on the vast morasses round Hudson Bay, and about 

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

 valley a slightly larger form prevails, with somewhat longer biU and brighter 

 coloration in summer, and for this many American ornithologists have adopted 

 the name scolopaceus, either specifically or sub-specifically. 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 Chili on the west, while a few wanderers cross the Pacific to Japan 

 and North-eastern Siberia. Its spring arrival on Long Island, near New York — 

 where it is known by the name of ' Dowitcher ' — takes place towards the end of 

 April, and within a month the most northern of its breeding-grounds have been 

 reached." 



Referring to the form M. griseus, the late Dr. T. M. Brewer writes f : — 

 " Mr. MacFarlane found this species breeding in the Arctic Region, in the vicinity 

 of Fort Anderson. The nests were taken between the 21st of June and the 1st of 

 July, the usual number of eggs in a nest appearing to be four. The nests were 



* ' Manual of British Birds,' pp. 561, 562. 



t ' Water Birds of North America,' vol. i. pp. 199, 200. 



P 



