CHAPTER XL 



Wilson's, or English snipe, scolopax wilsonii — scolopax 



gallinago. 



" To-day we spring the snipe, 

 And, with an eje as keen as does the bird 

 Himself, by hungcrs's strongest law conipell'd, 

 Explore each sheltcr'd drain or hollow ditch." 



THEIR DISTRIBUTION OVER THE WORLD. 



HERE is no game-bird so widely dis- 

 tributed over the whole world as the 

 species now under consideration. They 

 are found in all countries, from the ex- 

 treme points of Siberia even to the utter- 

 most limits of the South. The West 

 India Islands, as well as Ceylon and 

 Japan, are annually visited by this little 

 fowl, while the rice-plnntations of the Carolinas and the fertile 

 meadows of Egypt alike swarm with their multitudes. So nume- 

 rous are these birds in the rich country of the Pharaohs, that it is 

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