96 AMERICAN GAME. 



sons ignorantly and obstinately assert the reverse ; the 

 true Jack Snipe being a northern bird of Europe and 

 Asia, visiting the milder climates during the hard 

 weather. It is an exact counterpart of the English Snipe, 

 only about one-half smaller ; it never utters any cry on 

 rising, and rarely flies above one hundred yards, often 

 dropping within fifty feet of the muzzle of a gun just 

 discharged at it, although unwounded. The bird which 

 is here confounded with it, is the PECTORAL SANDPIPER, a 

 bird about one-third smaller than the snipe, of a lighter 

 brown, with a short, arched bill, and a feeble quavering 

 whistle. It is found indiscriminately on the sea-shore, 

 and in upland marshes ; I have shot it from Lake Huron 

 to the Penobscot, and the Capes of the Delaware ; it lies 

 well before dogs, which will point it, and is a good bird 

 on the table. It is known in Long Island as the " Mea- 

 dow Snipe," and the " Short Neck" in New Jersey, and 

 thence westward, as the "Fat Bird," or "Jack Snipe," 

 indiscriminately. It is not a snipe at all, but a Sand- 

 piper, Tringa, Pectoralis. 



- The only other true snipe ascertained to exist in Ame- 

 rica, is the RED-BREASTED SNIPE, Scolopax Novebora- 

 censis, better known as the " DOWITCHER," an unmeaning 

 name, adopted and persevered in by the Baymen, or as 

 the " Quail Snipe." At Egg Harbor the gunners call it 

 the " Brown-back." It is found only on the salt marshes, 

 and is never hunted' with dogs, but shot from ambush 

 over decovs. 



