78 



MEMOIRS OF THE NUTTALL ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB 



my forest, but was disappointed. The birds did not come back. I have had, 

 however, excellent opportunities to study this performance elsewhere. It is 

 worth seeing and has often been described. 



loi [230] Gallinago delicata (Ord). 



Wilson's Snipe; "English Snipe"; "Jack Snipe." 



Common transient visitor, very rare in summer and winter. March 2 to 

 May 5 (summer) ; August 27 to November 14 (winter). 



An unusually early autumn flight of this bird occurred in the last week of 

 August, 1916. Dr. J. C. Phillips^ reports twenty-five seen on August 27 in the 

 Topsfield marshes and flocks were seen elsewhere in the State. Messrs. A. P. 

 Stubbs and G. M. Bubier have found this bird spending the winter for the last 

 fifteen years at Hall's Brook in Lynn. Damsell records a bird shot at Newbury- 

 port on February 8, 1889. 



The courtship of the Snipe is expressed by a flight-song, but the song is 

 believed to be made by the stiflf wing-primaries and not to be vocal. It may be 

 heard in April on the borders of flooded meadows frequented by this bird. Soon 

 after sunset, as it is beginning to grow dark, one may hear overhead, a quavering 

 note, soft and mellow, repeated on all sides at frequent intervals. It is a sweet, 

 wierd, musical sound, one that increases in intensity only to die out and lasting 

 but two or three seconds. It has been described as a bleating sound, or like a 

 distant Indian war-whoop made by striking the mouth at frequent intervals during 

 the expulsion of air from the lungs. It is an all-pervading sound and its author 

 is difficult to locate. In fact in the dusk one rarely or never sees the performers 

 which appear to be at a considerable height above the ground. I have caught a 

 glimpse of a bird which appeared as a speck in the sky. The song begins at 

 sunset and may continue for forty-five minutes. 



Early in the evening I have heard from a bird on>the ground a clear, rapidly 

 repeated whistling note which was evidently vocal. 



On May 22, 1907, Mr. Geo. M. Bubier reported that a snipe at the fresh 

 marshes in Lynnfield " flew up and alighted on a telegraph pole beside the railroad 

 tracks. As we got too near it would fly to the inext pole, now and then fluttering 

 about our heads uttering a pcank. It very likely had a nest." 



When disturbed with its young the adults perform the wounded-bird act. 

 They fly slowly a few yards with dangling legs, drop on the ground as if wounded, 



1 Phillips, J. C. Auk, vol. 33, p. 434, 1916. 



