212 WILSON'S SNIPE. 



of the upper parts most elegantly white and black penciled; 

 breast vinous ruddy, finely spotted with black; under parts 

 buffy white, with patches of clear white and coal black 

 about the tail. The female has the entire head and neck 

 dingy white, speckled with black, the breast grayish-brown, 

 spotted with darker; the back deep brown, crossed with 

 broad, wavy lines of brownish-white. 



Having thoroughly observed this solitary Green-winged 

 Teal, I rise to my feet, when he takes alarm, rising from 

 the water at a single bound, and coursing through the air 

 amidst the tall tree-tops with most surprising rapidity, is 

 almost instantly followed by the Blue-wings. 



The nidification of this species is precisely like that of 

 the latter, except that the eggs are a trifle larger, about 

 1.90 x 1-32. The nest may be found from the northern 

 borders of the United States northward. 



WILSON'S SNIPE. 



It was the evening of the 22d of April (1880). All the 

 afternoon I had heard firing of guns in the wild meadows 

 of Tonawanda Swamp. As twilight approached and the 

 firing ceased, the air became resonant with the vernal chant 

 of Wilson's Snipe (Gailinago wilsoni). In every direction 

 the birds might be seen, describing their ascending and 

 somewhat spiral curves with that nervous beat of the wings, 

 so peculiar to themselves, while others, too high to be dis- 

 cerned in the dusky air, added not a little to the general 

 vocal effect. This song of the Snipe, characteristic of the 

 breeding season, or even of the entire spring, and heard 

 for the most part in the early morning, or in the evening 

 from twilight till after dark, is at once striking and strongly 

 differentiated Beginning in subdued tones, somewhat 

 like the sounds produced by the oblique strokes of a Pigeon's 



