426 GAME-BIRDS. 



throwing his head towards the earth and frequently jetting 

 up his tail." The young have a feeble " peep." 



II. GALLINAGO. 



A. DELICATA. (American) Snipe. Wilson's Snipe. A 

 common migrant through Massachusetts.* 



a. Average length, ten inches. Bill essentially like that 

 of the Woodcock, and about as long. Head much less stout, 

 and tail longer, than the corresponding parts of that bird. 

 Crown, dark, with a light median stripe. Back, etc., va- 

 ried 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 tawny, and 

 streaked or mottled with brown. 



b. 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 Bluebird enters 

 seriously upon her preparations for summer housekeeping, or 

 when the shad-bush is in bloom. Though they do not regu- 

 late 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. 

 Stragglers 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 



* Throughout most of New England, birds regularly pass the entire winter 



occurs only during the migrations, when on Cape Cod in bush-grown, briery 



it is locally common: but it breeds swamps, where swift-running brooks 



sparingly in eastern Maine and occa- or warm springs keep the ground com- 



sionally as far south as Massachusetts, paratively free from frost during the 



or even Connecticut. A good many coldest seasons. W. B. 



