BROWN SNIPE. 49 



In the summer or breeding plumage, the beak is reddish 

 brown, darker at the point than at the base; the irides 

 reddish hazel ; cheeks, top of the head, and back of the 

 neck, pale chestnut brown, streaked with black ; upper 

 part of the back, the scapulars and tertials, nearly black, 

 edged and streaked with bright yellowish chestnut ; wing- 

 coverts and quill-feathers dusky ash brown ; the lower 

 part of the back white ; upper tail-coverts white, spotted 

 with black; tail-feathers barred alternately with black 

 and white, of which the black bars are broader than those 

 which are white ; sides and front of the neck, the breast 

 and belly, reddish chestnut, spotted and barred with black ; 

 sides, flanks, vent, and under tail-coverts, white, tinged 

 with red, and spotted with black ; legs and toes greenish 

 brown, the claws black. 



From this state these birds pass, during autumn, through 

 various shades of dark brown and ash brown, to the ash 

 grey plumage of winter ; when the cheeks, head, and neck, 

 are ash brown, varied with darker brown ; scapulars, wing- 

 coverts, and tertials, dusky ash brown, margined with 

 greyish buffy white ; the lower part of the back, upper 

 tail-coverts, wing, quill, and tail-feathers, as in summer ; 

 breast and belly nearly white; flanks and under tail- 

 coverts dull white, spotted with black. 



The whole length of the bird is from ten to eleven 

 inches, depending on age and sex ; the beak also varies in 

 length from two inches to two and a half inches ; from 

 the carpal joint to the end of the first quill-feather, which 

 is the longest in the wing, five inches and five-eighths. 



The food in this country was said to be worms and small 

 marine bivalve mollusca. 



VOL. III. 



