122 NOTES ON THE 



nearly white, and barred with black throughout their length; 

 bill brown, yellowish at base and darker towards the end; 

 legs dark brown; iris hazel. 



Length, 10.50; wing, 5; tail, 2.25; bill, 2.50; tarsus, 1.25. 



Habitat, Temperate North America. 



MACRORHAMPHUS SCOLOPACEUS (Say). (232.) 



LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER. 



The migrations of this Snipe do not materially differ in any 

 respect from Wilson's. If anything, it is habitually the more 

 abundantly represented, especially in the fall migrations. Some- 

 times they reach us simultaneously with the earlier Ducks, but 

 more frequently they are in spring a little later. They fly very 

 compactly, and are thus slaughtered in great numbers for the 

 market in the autumn. In the absence of positive proof I 

 nevertheless believe that they breed here more or less, as they 

 are occasionally met with until late in July when they are 

 moulting, and seek the most secluded and unapproachable 

 places. Scarcely a season passes in which I do not meet a 

 few solitary individuals in my own county, and wherever I go 

 I get the same report. It is often well into October before the 

 last of them are gone. 



SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 



Rather smaller than the preceding; bill long, compressed, 

 flattened, and expanded towards the end where it is punctula- 

 ted and corrugated; wing rather long, shaft of first primary 

 strong; tail short, legs rather long; upper parts variegated 

 with dark ashy, pale reddish and black, the latter predomi- 

 nating on the back; rump and upper tail coverts white, the 

 latter spotted and barred transversely with black; under parts 

 pale ferruginous-red, with numerous points and circular spots 

 of brownish-black on the neck before, and transverse bands of 

 the same on the sides and under tail coverts; axillary feathers 

 and under wing coverts white, spotted and transversely barred 

 with black; quills brownish-black, shaft of first primary white; 

 tail brownish-black, with numerous transverse bands of ashy 

 white, frequently tinged with ferruginous, especially on the two 

 middle feathers; bill greenish-black; legs dark greenish-brown. 



Length, 10; wing, 5.75; tail, 2.25; bill, 2.25; tarsus, 1.25. 



Habitat, Mississippi Valley and Western Province of North 

 America. 



Note. After Dr. Coues had spoken so emphatically in the 

 rejection of the specific name of this species, in his Birds of 

 the Northwest, p. 477, and upon what seemed to be the best of 

 reasons, I am not a little surprised to find it adopted by the 

 American Ornithological Union. 



