OF NEW ENGLAND. 407 
Crown, dark, with a light median stripe. Back, etc., varied 
with black, brown, and a tint varying from chestnut to whitish. 
Belly, etc., white; generally unmarked, but with the sides 
darkly barred. Breast, etc., somewhat tawny, and streaked or 
mottled with brown. 
(b). The eggs have about the same measurements as those 
of the Woodcock, but are much more pointed or ‘ pyriform.” 
They are drab, often tinged with olive, and are blotched with 
brown. ‘The loosely constructed nest is built on the ground 
in various wet places.” 
(c). The Snipe, more particularly designated as Wilson’s 
Snipe or the “ English” Snipe, differ so slightly from the latter 
as to be substantially the same, if not wholly so. In New 
England, they are birds of passage, breeding here but rarely. 
Near Boston, they appear from the South as soon as the frost 
is well out of the lowlands, where they feed, and where they 
may be looked for as soon as the Blue Bird enters seriously 
upon her preparations for summer housekeeping, or when the 
shad-bush is in bloom. Though they do not regulate their 
movements by the calendar, the sportsman will find that in a 
series of years the most favorable season for spring snipe- 
shooting is that between April tenth and twenty-fifth. Strag- 
glers and small ‘‘ wisps” may be found sometimes in March, 
often in May, and occasionally in early June. But at this time 
of year they are uncertain and capricious in their habits, ap- 
pearing and perhaps in a few hours disappeaing so suddenly 
and mysteriously, as to cause the formation of very different 
theories and speculations, as to what are the favorable condi- 
tions for a “flight,” and to make it impossible for any person 
not living in the immediate vicinity of the grounds, to count 
surely upon finding birds. As to the flights, some say ‘‘ clear 
warm weather with light westerly winds,’ others ‘thick 
weather and southerly winds ;” some look for snipe after, and 
some before, a northeast rain-storm; and so on. Some say 
that thick weather makes them stop here, others that clear 
weather helps them to get here. Each theorist rejoices in his 
own wisdom, and there is not only this uncertainty as to the 
