2 SCOLOPACID.E. 



placed on the marshy borders of small lakes, and were composed of a few decayed 

 leaves placed in a depression in the mossy ground. In one instance the female 

 was sitting on the nest, and when approached, ascended in the air, uttering shrill 

 and long-continued notes of alarm and annoyance. She was then, after a few 

 minutes, seen to descend in a perpendicular manner to her nest. 



"The eggs of this species are of a decidedly pyriform sluipe, and vary 

 considerably in size — namely, from 1-55 to 175 inches in length, and from I'OS 

 to 1"20 in breadth. In some examples the ground is drab, witli blended shadings 

 of rufous and olivaceous ; in others, the ground is a fawn-coloured drab, more 

 slightly olivaceous. The markings are uniformly sepia in color, somewhat 

 intensified about the larger end, and of less size and more scattered at the smaller 

 end." .... 



With reference to the form 31. scoloiMceus, Dr. Brewer continues : — " It is 

 not possible to give an exact account of the distinctive habits of the form called 

 ' scolopaceus' if it really possesses any that are peculiar to it or distinguishable 

 from those of the preceding. Nor can it be stated with certainty how far, if at all, 

 its distribution differs from that of the more common Red-breasted vSnipe. In the 

 dress of the scolopaccus this form has been met with both on the Atlantic and on 

 the Pacific coast. It is found in the interior ; and, in the winter, has also been 

 met with in Central America. Wiirdemann secured examples in Florida, and 

 Professor Kumlien has procured birds of this form both in the spring and in the 

 fall, near Lake Koskonong. Lieutenant Warren obtained a single individual on 

 the Missouri River, near Omaha, Nebraska. It has been found very common 

 among the lagoons on the Pacific coast, near San Pedro, in California (' Ibis,' 

 1866, p. 27). It was described as not apparently ever going down to the salt- 

 flats, its habits being given as somewhat similar to those of Micropalama 

 himantopus, and therefore inferentially different from those of M. griseiis. 



" Mr. Dall mentions the M. scolopaceus as common about the mouth of the 

 River Yukon, where the M. griseus is spoken of as being very rare up tliat river. 

 At Nulato this same form is mentioned by Mr. Bannister as being quite common, 

 though not extremely abundant ; he found the nest of this Snipe on the ord of 

 June, and on the 6th secured the parent with the eggs. The nest was a simple 

 hollow in the ground in a -grassy hummock, in the centre of a marshy spot, with 

 scarcely any lining whatever ; there was nothing in the shape of a nest substantial 

 enough to be removed. The eggs were four in number, and Mr. Bannister 

 describes them as of a brownish color, mottled with a still deeper tint. The 

 female when startled from the nest shuffled off with great rapidity among the 

 grassy hummocks, presenting a very difficult mark to hit. Only one parent bird 

 was seen 



