2 SCOLOPACID^. 



At all periods, excepting those at which they have nests containing eggs, or young 

 so small and dehcate as to require all the care of their parents, the flight of the 

 present species usually resembles that of the Common Snipe, Scolopax wilsonii ; 

 but when startled from the nest, or from any place in its immediate vicinity, it 

 rises on wing, and moves off low over the ground with deeply incurved wings, and 

 with a whirring motion of these organs, which, if as rapid as that of a Partridge, 

 would appear quite similar ; -but, on such occasions, our bird moves slowly before 

 you, and instead of uttering the note of independence, as it were, which it emits 

 at other times while freely and fearlessly travelling, it gives out sounds weakened 

 as if by grief or anxiety, for the purpose of inducing you to follow it. If on the 

 ground, it acts in a similar manner, moves off slowly, and limping as if crippled, 

 and this at times quite as much as if you had really come upon it while on its 

 nest, or surprised it with its young. On all such occasions, Reader, you ought to 

 mark well the spot from which the bird has started, and, to assure yourself 

 that your eye may not be deceived, throw your cap or hat at your feet 

 to serve as a beacon, should necessity afterwards call for it, to guide you 

 around the place until you have discovered the nest which you are desirous 

 of seeing. 



" Through these means, on the 20th of July ISoo, I after some search found 



the nest and eggs of this species. The bii'ds flew, to use the words of my Journal, 



like Partridges, and not like Tringas. I marked them well, for both the female 



and the male flew from near the nest, and having left my fisher's hat where I then 



stood, I walked carefully over the moss hither and thither, until at last I came 



upon the spot. My pleasure would have been greatly augmented had any of my 



young companions been near; but the sailors who had rowed me to the foot of 



the rocks exhibited little more delight than they would have done on finding that 



their grog had been stopped. For my part, I felt as happy as when, on the same 



coast, I for the first time saw the nest and eggs of the Black-crowned Warbler, of 



which you have read an account in the second volume of this work. Foiu- 



beautiful eggs, larger than I had expected to see produced by birds of so small a 



size, lay fairly beneath my eye as I knelt over them for several minutes in perfect 



ecstasy. The nest had been formed first, apparently, by the patting of the little 



creature's feet on the crisp moss, and in the slight hollow thus produced were 



laid a few blades of slender dry grass bent in a circular manner, the internal 



diameter of the nest being two inches and a half, and its depth an inch and a 



quarter. The eggs, which were in shape just like those of the Spotted Sandpiper, 



Totanus macularius, measured seven and a half eighths of an inch in length, and 



three-fourths of an inch in breadth. Their ground-coloui- was a rich creamy-yellow 



