66 "THE WILSON SNIPE. 
—— $a — —————_ 
buff, finely spotted and streaked, or indistinctly barred with blackish; belly white, 
the axillars, sides and flanks strongly barred,—blackish and white; both tail- 
coverts and exposed tip of tail strongly ochraceous-buff, or rufous, finely barred 
with black; tail-feathers black basally, some of the lateral ones white or white- 
tipped. Length 10,00-12.00 (254-304.8) ; wing 5.00 (127); tail 2.40 (61); bill 
2.50 (63.5); tarsus 1.25 (31.8). The female averages smaller than the male. 
Recognition Marks.—Robin size; general mottled and streaked appearance ; 
long bill used as mud-probe; marsh-skulking habits, and jack, jack notes on 
rising. 
Nesting.—Nest: on the ground. Eggs: 3 or 4, clay-color, olive, or ashy- 
brown, spotted and blotched with reddish brown or umber. Avy. size, 1.58 x 1.14 
(40.1 x 29). Season: c. June Ist; one brood. 
General Range.—North and middle America, breeding from the northern 
United States northward; south in winter to the West Indies and northern South 
America. 
Range in Washington.—Spring and fall migrant and winter resident in 
suitable localities thruout the State; breeds sparingly east of the Cascades. 
Authorities.—| Lewis and Clark, Hist. Ex. (1814) Ed. Biddle: Coues, Vol. 
IT. p. 186.] G. wilsonti (Temm.) Bon., Baird, Rep. Pac. R. R. Surv. IX. 1858, 
Da7lic. ola CRS: i, Ri Di. Si, Dros eee le ee ee 
Specimens.—U. of W. Prov. P'. B. E. 
WHENEVER the word “snipe” is uttered we think most naturally of 
this recluse of the inland fens, for he is the Snipe of America. Altho pos- 
sessing much in common with the European Snipe (G. gallinago) and some- 
thing with the Woodcock (Philohela minor) of the Eastern states, his ways are 
peculiar enough to make him distinctly known to every sportsman. He is 
rather a disreputable looking fellow, a tatterdemalion in fact, as he bursts out 
of his bog with an exultant ery of “escape, escape,” and flutters his rags in the 
wind. And as he pursues his devious way thru the air, jerking hither and 
thither in most lawless fashion, the gunner could easily believe him an escaped 
jail-bird if the stripes of his garments only ran the other way. 
The Wilson Snipe is a bird of the open marsh, a frequenter of the grassy 
border stretches, or of the boggy margins of the “spring branch.” Here he 
lies pretty closely by day, but as dusk comes he bestirs himself and goes pat- 
tering about in the shallow water or over the weedy scum-strewn muck, 
thrusting his beak down rapidly into the ooze and extracting worms or suc- 
culent roots. If danger approaches by day, the bird’s first instinct is to crouch 
low. If the sky is clear, it is difficult to dislodge him, for the light blinds him 
in the air, and he knows that his ragged blacks and browns exactly match the 
criss-crossed vegetation and interlacing shadows of his present surroundings. 
If, however, the day be overcast and windy, the bird springs up quickly against 
the wind, shouts “Jack, Jack,” twice, pursues a bewildering zigzag until out of 
