360 SCOLOPACimE. 



sometimes very high, and has then a loud and shrill whistle, 

 making many evolutions over the marshes ; forming, divid- 

 ing, and reuniting. They sometimes settle in such numbers, 

 and so close together, that eighty-five have been shot at one - 

 discharge of a musket. They frequent the sand-bars and 

 mud-flats at low water in search of food ; and being less 

 suspicious of a boat than of a person on shore, are easily 

 approached by this medium, and shot down in great 

 numbers." In autumn and winter it passes southwards 

 through the Southern States to Central and South America 

 as far as Chili on the west and Brazil on the east, visiting 

 Cuba regularly, and the Bermudas more rarely. Until 

 recently its breeding-places were only known, in a general 

 way, to be in the Fur Countries and the vicinity of the 

 Arctic circle, but of late years nests have been found in the 

 Anderson River district by Mr. R. Macfarlane, collector to 

 the Smithsonian Institution, and by Mr. Dall in Alaska. 

 The eggs were found in June, in slight depressions of the 

 ground in the tussocks of the marshes, the normal comple- 

 ment being four ; they present the usual character of eggs of 

 Gallinago, being of a brownish-olive with diffused spots of 

 chocolate and umber-brown, and measure on the average 

 1*62 by 1*12 in. Dr. Elliott Coues, from whom these 

 details are taken, says that this species is so tame that it 

 affords no sport ; if disturbed it merely utters a short iveet 

 on taking flight, and soon settles down again by the side of 

 the water in which it seeks its food ; and when taken off its 

 feet by the tide, or wounded, it swims readily. Its food con- 

 sists of small insects, worms, and marine bivalve mollusca. 



A form of this Snipe has been distinguished by the name 

 of M. scolopaceus, but according to Dr. Elliott Coues it is 

 not even entitled to rank as a variety. Mr. Ridgway, who 

 has carefully considered the question (Bull. Nutt. Orn. Club, 

 1880, pp. 157160), says that M. griseus predominates on 

 the Atlantic coast of the United States, no specimens having 

 been seen from west of the Alleghanies ; whereas M. scolo- 

 paceus occurs principally in the western portions of the 

 continent, crossing it diagonally from Alaska to the Missis- 





