64 SHORE BIRDS. 



black portions duller. Young, differ from the last in having- 

 the feathers of the back bordered with dull white and the 

 top of head finely mottled with the same. Downy young, yel- 

 lowish gray above, paler beneath, mottled and spotted above 

 with dusky with a median line on head of the same. Breed- 

 ing note, ''''Put" repeated many times at regular intervals as 

 the bird both sits and flies; alarm note, a series of harsh 

 screams. Flight, steady, not swift, wing-beats rather slow 

 and sweeping low, the head is held partly back but the legs 

 are fully extended, or in short flights are held dangling ; al- 

 though it often wades in water so deeply that it nearly floats, 

 it seldom swims ; a number will sometimes sit together in 

 the water occasionally moving the primaries up and down 

 with a fan-like movement while the secondaries are kept 

 motionless. Breeds from northern U. S., west of the Miss- 

 issippi River, southward and in Fla., the Bahamas, and the 

 Antilles in late April and early May. Common ; very rare in 

 eastern U. S. north of Fla. ; arrives in Fla. about the middle 

 of March ; goes south in early Oct. 



C. WOODCOCKS AND SNIPES. Scolecopaoidae. 



Birds of fresh water swamps and marshes ; bill, much 

 longer than Fig. 83. 



head, covered 

 with soft skin 

 sensitive near 

 tip (rough- G, C, b, 1. 



ened by pits and wrinkled when dry, fig. 83), with it the 

 birds procure worms and similar animals by probing in mud 

 or soft earth ; in order to enable the birds*to perceive dang- 

 er when the bill is buried to the base, the eyes are placed 

 far back in the head directly over the ears, figs. 85, 86; neck, 

 and wings, short, folding within the tip of the short, round- 

 ed tail ; legs, short ; toes, four, long, no basal webs ; plumage 

 the same at all seasons ; sexes, similar. All of the species 

 are well known game birds. 



