THE AMERICAN SNIPE. 95 



founded than distinguished by the unscientific sports- 

 man. 



The American bird has, however, two or three habits, 

 during early 'spring-shooting, which I have never ob- 

 served in the European species, nor seen noticed in any 

 work of natural history ; the first of these is frequenting 

 underwood and bushy covert abounding in springs and 

 intersected by cattle-tracks, and occasionally even high 

 woods, during wild, stormy, and dark weather, especially 

 when snow-squalls are driving ; and this is a habit of the 

 bird meriting the attention of the sportsman, as in such 

 weather, when he finds no birds on the open and unshel- 

 tered marshes, he will do well to beat the neighboring 

 underwoods, if any, and if not, the nearest swampy 

 woodlands ; by doing which he will oftentimes fill his 

 bag when he despairs of any sport. The second habit is 

 that of alighting, not unfrequently, on rail-fences, or 

 stumps, and even on high' trees, which I think I can 

 safely assert that the European bird never does ; and the 

 third is the utterance, when in the act of skimming over 

 the meadows, after soaring, bleating, and drumming for 

 an hour at a stretch in mid air, of " a sharp reiterated 

 chatter, consisting of a quick, jarring repetition of the 

 syllables, keJc-TceJc-Jcek-fok-Jcek, many times in succession, 

 with a rising and falling inflection, like that of a hen 

 which has just laid an egg."* 



There is no JACK SNIPE in America, though many per- 



* " Frank Forrester's Field Sports of North America," vol. i. p. 161. 



