302 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



fall there is a noticeable movement of northern birds from the ist to the 20th 

 of September in western New York, and September loth to 30th on Long 

 Island. They remain in full force if undisturbed throughout October and 

 well into November, the majority disappearing with the freezing of the 

 swamps, although stragglers are found throughout the winter around 

 warm springs in western New York, and on the tidal marshes of the coastal 

 district. 



Haunts and habits. The Wilson snipe, "Jack" snipe, or "English" 

 snipe as gunners often call it, is a bird of the swamps, marshes, and boggy 

 shores, but not in the dense flags and sedges where the rails hold sway, 

 nor in the thick coverts which are the woodcock's delight. This bird 

 prefers a sparse growth of grass, weeds or bushes where it can walk easily 

 about thrusting and probing in the soft oozy soil for worms, grubs, soft 

 roots and seeds which constitute its favorite food. When no enemy is near 

 he walks nimbly, carrying the head and body erect with the bill pointing 

 well downward, but often assumes more the attitude of a sandpiper and 

 gleans from the surface especially when foraging along the shore of a lake 

 or stream as he often does in the dusk of evening. When his foes appear 

 he crouches so motionless that it is impossible to distinguish him among 

 the grasses, and when too closely pressed springs suddenly into the air 

 with a sharp grating call and makes rapidly off in a "rail-fence" course 

 not far above the ground until well out of danger, when he mounts high 

 in the air and circles about for a few minutes finally to pitch headlong into 

 the swamp again, perhaps into the same position from which he was driven. 

 In April and early May when snipe are nesting their curious aerial per- 

 formance is one of the most interesting sounds of the marsh lands. It is 

 usually heard in the evening or on cloudy days. The bird mounts high 

 in the air, often five or six hundred feet, and circles around the swamp, 

 occasionally sweeping obliquely downward with a quivering motion of 

 the wings, producing a weird tremulous crescendo whistle, resembling 

 somewhat the distant or muffled bleating of a kid, or the sound of an old- 

 fashioned fan-mill, whence the notes have been known as the "bleating" 

 or "winnowing" of the Snipe. The sound is evidently produced by air rushing 



