RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 113 



I have frequently amused myself with the various action of 

 these birds. They fly very rapidly, sometimes wheeling, coursing 

 and doubling along the surface of the marshes; then shooting 

 high in air, there separating; and forming in various bodies, 

 uttering a kind of quivering whistle. Among many which I 

 opened in May, were several females, that had very little ru- 

 fous below, and the backs were also much lighter, and less 

 marbled with ferruginous. The eggs contained in their ovaries 

 were some of them as large as garden peas. Their stomachs 

 contained masses of those small snail shells that lie in millions 

 on the salt marshes: the wrinkles at the base of the bill, and 

 the red breast, are strong characters of this species, as also the 

 membrane which unites the outer and middle toes together. 



The Red-breasted Snipe is ten inches and a half long, and 

 eighteen inches in extent; the bill is about two inches and a 

 quarter in length, straight, grooved, black towards the point, 

 and of a dirty eelskin colour at the base, where it is tumid and 

 wrinkled; lores dusky; cheeks and eyebrows pale yellowish 

 white, mottled with specks of black; throat and breast a red- 

 dish buff colour; sides white, barred with black; belly and vent 

 white, the latter barred with dusky; crown, neck above, back, 

 scapulars and tertials, black, edged, mottled and marbled with 

 yellowish white, pale and bright ferruginous, much in the same 

 manner as the common Snipe; wings plain olive, the seconda- 

 ries centred and bordered with white; shaft of the first quill 

 very white; rump, tail-coverts and tail (which consists of twelve 

 feathers) white, thickly spotted with black; legs and feet dull 

 yellowish green; outer toe united to the middle one by a small 

 membrane; eye very dark. The female, which is paler on the 

 back, and less ruddy on the breast, has been described by Mr. 

 Pennant as a separate species.* 



These birds doubtless breed not far to the northward of the 

 United States, if we may judge from the lateness of the season 

 when they leave us in spring; the largeness of the eggs in the 



"See his Brown Snipe, Arct. Zool. No. 369. 

 VOL. III. Q 



