ZOOLOGY. 237 



I never observed but two red phalaropes in Washington Territory, and those late in November 

 appeared during a storm in Shoalwater bay, where they swam in the surf near shore picking 

 at small Crustacea washed out of the sand. They seemed much more aquatic in their habits 

 than the preceding, and I am inclined to think that the birds seen in large flocks off the coasts 

 of California and Mexico in winter are of this species. C. 



Family SC OLOP ACID AE .The Snipes. 



Sub-Family SCOLOPACINAE. Short-1 egged Snipe. 



GALLINAGO WILSONII, (Temm.) Bon. 



Wilson s Snipe ; English Snipe. 



Scolopax ^cilsom^, TEMM. PL Col. V, livraison LXVIII, about 182 1 la text of Scolopax gigantea- BON. Syn. 1828, 330. 

 SWAINS. F. B. Am. II, 1831, 401. NUTT. Man. II, 185. AUD. Orn. Biog. Ill, 1835, 322 : V. 1839, 

 583 ; pi. 243. IB. Syn. 248 In. Birds Amer. V, 1842, 339 ; pi. 350. 



Gallinago wilsonii, BONAP. List, 183^. BAIRD & CASSIN, Gen. Rep. Birds, 710. 



Scolopax gallinago, WILS. Am. Orn. VI, 1812, 18. Not of Linnaeus. 



Scolopax dilicata, ORD, ed. Wils. IX, 1825, 218. 



? Scolopax drummondii, Sw. F. Bor. Am. II, 1831, 400. ADD. Orn. Biog. V, 1839, 319 IB. Syn. 349. IB. Birds Amer. V. 



? Scolopax douglasm, Sw. F. Bor. Am. II, 1831, 400. 



9 Scolopax leucurus, Sw. F. Bor. Am. II, 1831, 50. 



SP. CH. Bill long, compressed, flattened and slightly expanded towards the tip, pustulated in its terminal half; wings 

 rather long; legs moderate; tail hhort Entire upper parts brownish black ; every feather spotted and widely edged with Ugh 

 rufous, yellowish brown or ashy white ; back and rump transversely barred and spotted with the same ; a line from the base 01 

 the bill over the top of the head. Throat and neck before, dull reddish ashy ; wing feather marked with dull brownish black ; 

 other under parts white, with transverse bars of brownish black on the sides, axillary feathers and under wing coverts and under 

 tail coverts; quills brownish black; outer edge of first primary white; tail glossy brownish black, widely tipped with bright 

 rufous, paler at the tip, and with a subterminal narrow band of black ; outer feathers of tail paler, frequently nearly white and 

 barred with black throughout their length. Bill brown, yellowish at base and darker towards the end ; legs dark brown. 



Malt: length, 10 to 10.50; extent, 16. Female: length, 11 ; extent, 17 inches; wing, 5; tail, 2j ; bill, 2&amp;lt;| ; tarsus, l inch. 

 Feet pale greenish gray. 



Hib. Entire temperate regions of North America. California, (Mr. Szabo ) 



Wilson s snipe is generally distributed throughout all such portions of Oregon and Washington 

 where nature has provided them with suitable abiding places. Many remain in the vicinity of 

 Puget Sound throughout the winter, unless it be unusually cold. This is not surprising when 

 we consider the mild open character of the winter of the coast region of those Territories, 

 which, unlike the hard, cold season of places on the Atlantic coast of the same northern latitude, 

 is what might be properly termed a rainy season. 



Further in the interior they are found, and a few winter near Fort Dalles, on the Columbia. 

 In that vicinity I found several individuals on a cold day in the winter of 1854- 55 who had 

 retreated from their ordinary haunts owing to the frozen condition of the surface of the ground 

 and a slight fall of snow and were then busy close to the edge of an open running brook, 

 running along the line where the snow had been melted by the ripples of the water, and feeding 

 and acting at the time much like sandpipers having been thus driven by sheer necessity to an 

 almost complete abandonment of their ordinary habits. It is probable that had the change in 

 the weather been less sudden, these birds would have migrated further south; but as it was, 

 they were taken unawares, and reduced to great straits by cold and starvation. In habits, 



