96 SCOLOPAX KHKIIMII. 



name of the English snipe, to distinguish it from the 

 woodcock, and from several others of tin- sum- i:enns. 

 It arrives in Pennsylvania about tlie loth of March, 

 and remains in the low grounds for several weeks ; the 

 greater part then move off to the north, and to the 

 higher inland districts, to breed. A few are occasionally 

 found, and, consequently, breed, in our low marshes, 

 during 1 the summer. When they first arrive, they are 

 usually lean ; but, when in good order, are accounted 

 excellent eating-. They are perhaps the most diflimlt 

 to shoot of all our birds, as they fly in sudden /i^/air 

 lines, and very rapidly. Great numbers of these birds 

 winter on the rice grounds of the Southern States, 

 where, in- the month of February, they appeared to be 

 much tamer than they are usually here, as I frequently 

 observed them running about among the sprinirs and 

 watery thickets. I was tcld by the inhabitants that 

 they generally disappeared early in the spring. On the 

 20th 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 the 10th of April. 1 was told by 

 several people that they are abundant in the Illinois 

 country, up as far as lake Michigan; They are but 

 seldom seen in Pennsylvania during the summer, but 

 are occasionally met with in considerable numbers on 

 their return in autumn, along the whole eastern side of 

 the Alleghany, from the sea to the mountains. They 

 have the same soaring irregular flight in the air, in 

 gloomy weather, as the snipe of Europe; the same 

 bleating note and occasional rapid descent ; spring from 

 the marshes with the like feeble squeak ; and, in every 

 respect resemble the common snipe of Britain, except 

 in being about an inch less ; and in having sixteen 

 feathers in the tail instead of fourteen, the number 

 said by Bewick to be in that of Europe. From tin ->e 

 circumstances, \\ e must either corn-hide this to be a 

 different species, or partially changed \>y difference of 

 climate ; the former appears to me the most probable 

 opinion of the two. 



