OF NEW ENGLAND. 407 



Crown, dark, with a light median stripe. Back, etc., varied 

 with black, brown, and a tint varying from chestnut to whitish. 

 Belly, etc., white ; generally unmarked, but with the sides 

 darkly barred. Breast, etc., somewhat tawn} r , and streaked or 

 mottled with brown. 



(&). The eggs have about the same measurements as those 

 of the Woodcock, but are much more pointed or " pyriform." 

 They are drab, often tinged with olive, and are blotched with 

 brown. "The loosely constructed nest is built on the ground 

 in various wet places." 



(c). The Snipe, more particularly designated as Wilson's 

 Snipe or the " English" Snipe, differ so slightly from the latter 

 as to be substantially the same, if not wholly so. In New 

 England, they are birds of passage, breeding here but rarely. 

 Near Boston, they appear from the South as soon as the frost 

 is well out of the lowlands, where they feed, and where they 

 may be looked for as soon as the Blue Bird enters seriously 

 upon her preparations for summer housekeeping, or when the 

 shad-bush is in bloom. Though' they do not regulate their 

 movements by the calendar, the sportsman will find that in a 

 series of years the most favorable season for spring snipe- 

 shooting is that between April tenth and twenty-fifth. Strag- 

 glers and small "wisps" may be found sometimes in March, 

 often in May, and occasionally in early June. But at this time 

 of year they are uncertain and capricious in their habits, ap- 

 pearing and perhaps in a few hours disappeaing so suddenly 

 and mysteriously, as to cause the formation of very different 

 theories and speculations, as to what are the favorable condi- 

 tions for a " flight," and to make it impossible for any person 

 not living in the immediate vicinity of the grounds, to count 

 surely upon finding birds. As to the flights, some say u clear 

 warm weather with light westerly winds," others " thick 

 weather and southerly winds ;" some look for snipe after, and 

 some before, a northeast rain-storm ; and so on. Some say 

 that thick weather makes them stop here, others that clear 

 weather helps them to get here. Each theorist rejoices in his 

 own wisdom, and there is not only this uncertainty as to the 



