oe  'THE WILSON SNIPE. 645 
“SNOWY” is perhaps a rather strong term to apply to a bird whose 
upperparts are grayish brown (the color of wet sand), and which boasts 
emphatic dabs and patches of black besides; but the pure white of the under- 
parts and face is more extensive than in the case of any other plover. More- 
over, by a sort of poetic license, the mind associates this nimble patterer with 
the snowy crests of the waves, from whose retreating footsteps the bird 
manages to snatch a fat living. 
These Plovers appear in small flocks during migrations, and in the nesting 
season a suitable stretch of beach may prove equally attractive to half a dozen 
pairs. The eggs, three or four in number, are laid in a slight depression of 
the dry sand, without pretense of cover; but all the information volunteered 
as to their whereabouts by the hovering or limping parents is studiously incor- 
rect, and the eggs when found become again invisible once the eye leaves them. 
Great Salt Lake in Utah and the ocean beaches of southern California 
are typical summer ranges of the Snowy Plover; but the bird has been de- 
scribed from near the Columbia in Oregon, and a specimen was taken at 
Gray’s Harbor by Mr. C. W. Bowles; so that it is more than likely to be found 
breeding in small numbers along the southern portion of our own Pacific shore. 
PLOVERDOM. 
No. 257. 
WILSON’S SNIPE. 
V A. O. U. No. 230. Gallinago delicata (Ord.). 
Synonyms.—AMERICAN SNIPE. JACK SNIPE. “ENGLISH” SNIPE. Boc- 
SUCKER. 
Description.—Adult: Upperparts brownish black, freckled, mottled, barred, 
and streaked with ochraceous-buff and whitish; crown and back nearly pure black, 
the former divided by irregular buffy median line; the scapulars and inter- 
scapulars bordered by whitish or cream-buff, on outer margins only; wings 
fuscous, the edge including outer web of first primary, white; the greater coverts, 
secondaries, and sometimes inner primaries narrowly tipped with white; a dark 
line from eye to bill; throat whitish; sides of head and neck and breast ochraceous- 
