

SPECIES 3. SCOLOPAX GALLINAGO* 



SNIPE. 

 [Plate XLV1L Fig. 1.] 



THIS bird is well known to our sportsmen; and, if not the 

 same, has a very near resemblance of the common Snipe of Eu- 

 rope. It is usually known by the name of the English Snipe, 

 to distinguish it from the Woodcock, and from several others of 

 the same genus. It arrives in Pennsylvania about the tenth of 

 March, and remains in the low grounds for several weeks; the 

 greater part then move off to the north, and to the higher in- 

 land districts to breed. A few arfe occasionally found, and con- 

 sequently breed, in our low marshes during the summer. When 

 they first arrive, they are usually lean; but when in good order 

 are accounted excellent eating. They are, perhaps, the most 

 difficult to shoot of all our birds, as they fly in sudden zig-zag 

 lines, and very rapidly. Great numbers of these birds winter 

 in the rice grounds of the southern states, where, in the month 

 of February, they appeared to be much tamer than they are usu- 

 ally here, as I frequently observed them running about among 

 the springs and watery thickets. I was told by the inhabitants, 

 that they generally disappeared early in the spring. On the 

 twentieth of March I found these birds extremely numerous on 

 the borders of the ponds near Louisville, Kentucky; and also 

 in the neighbourhood of Lexington in the same state, as late as 



* In consequence of Wilson's doubts, whether this bird was the S. GalUnago 

 or not, he gave no synonymes. The Prince of Musignano, convinced that it was 

 a distinct species, adopted for it the name of Brehmii, under the impression that 

 it was identical with the Snipe lately discovered in Germany, and described un- 

 der the above mentioned name. It appears to be neither the Gallinago nor the 

 Brehmii, but a bird peculiar to our country: In Mr. Ord's supplement to Wilson's 

 Ornithology, it is classed under the name of Scclopax delicata. 



