AMERICAN SNIPE. 
Gallinago delicata. 
The snipe is a small bird, not much more than one- 
half the weight of a woodcock. Its bill, which is dark 
brown and considerably swollen at the end, is more 
than twice as long as the head. The lower portion of 
the tibia is naked; in other words, the feathers do not 
come down to the tarsal joint, which they reach in 
most other birds, and perhaps in all land birds. 
The eyes are brown, and the feet are bluish or green- 
ish gray. The upper parts are generally black or 
blackish brown, divided lengthwise by streaks of 
brown and whitish. The chin is whitish and the neck 
reddish brown spotted with darker. The scapulars are 
streaked with reddish brown, as are also the wing 
coverts and secondaries. The tail feathers are blackish, 
with a broad band of brownish red near the end, and 
the tips white. The bird’s length is 10% inches, its 
extent of wings from 16 to 17, and the bill is over 2% 
inches long, and sometimes longer. As in the wood- 
cock, so in the snipe, the bill is a sensitive organ of 
touch. 
Allied to the woodcock, but wholly different from 
it in appearance, habits and home, is the American 
snipe, often wrongly called “English” snipe. Birds 
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