V0l i'8? 9 VI ] General Notes. 27 1 



after the spring migration has passed on, no Wilson's Snipe will again 

 be seen until September. It has only been within the past few years 

 that I have appreciated the numbers which must breed along the Kanka- 

 kee River in Indiana. We know there is no fall migration as early as 

 July and August, and consequently such birds as are killed in those 

 months must be the breeding birds and their young, which at this season 

 do not show any material variation in size or plumage. At English 

 Lake, which is a mere widening of the Kankakee River near the settle- 

 ment bearing the same name, the water is often sufficiently low in the 

 summer months to expose a considerable territory of mud flats, grown 

 up to cane and wild rice, and it is here that the Snipe congregate during 

 a portion of the day and at night retire to the marshes back from the 

 lake and river. On August 7, 1S93, Mr. J. M. Mackay and friend bagged 

 sixty-nine 'Jacks,' and one morning in the latter part of July, 1897, killed 

 forty-two of the same bird. 



But few instances of the actual finding of the nests have come to my 

 knowledge. Mr. G. Frean Morcom has a set of eggs in his collection 

 collected on the grounds of the Macsauber Shooting Club, near Davis 

 Station, Indiana, on the Kankakee River, and another nest was dis- 

 covered by Mr. John Watson of Chicago, a sportsman of large experi- 

 ence in Snipe shooting. He wrote me under date of May 25, 1898: "I 

 found the 'Jack Snipe' nest referred to, on April 24, 1898, near what is 

 known as the 'big ditch,' about two miles south of Davis Station, Indi- 

 ana. There were three eggs in the nest, large eggs for the size of the 

 bird, and very much tapered at one end, dull white and splashed with 

 black markings. I was within two feet of the nest when the bird flushed 

 and acted as though crippled, lying on the withered grass with extended 

 wings, about ten feet from where I stood. I walked up to her and off 

 she went, and a very lively bird she then was." 



I am also indebted to Mr. F. R. Bissell of Chicago, a sportsman well 

 acquainted with the Wilson's Snipe, for information regarding a nest 

 containing four eggs which he found on April 24, 1896, while hunting 

 through meadows some ten miles west of Waukegan, Lake Co., Illinois. 

 On two occasions I have flushed Snipe in Stark Co., Indiana, in April, 

 when their actions were sufficiently suspicious to satisfy me they were 

 nesting in the immediate vicinity, but a thorough search failed to reveal 

 the nests of either. 



In most, if not all States the Wilson's Snipe has never been protected 

 at any season, but under a new bill for the better protection of Game 

 Birds and other species, now pending before the legislature of Illinois, 

 this Snipe is given a close season between the 25th day of April and the 

 1st dav of September. It is hoped this may become a law, inasmuch as 

 we know that a considerable number must breed within the limits of the 

 State every year. 



A very late record for this Snipe in Illinois is three being shot by Mr. 

 C. J. Spencer on December 24, 1S96, at Benton, 111., in the northeastern 



