AMERICAN SNIPE 33 



the large end. They measure more than an inch and 

 a half in length by a little over an inch in breadth. 

 When hatched, the young leave the nest at once. They 

 are tiny little things covered with yellow and brown 

 down. At this age the bill is short, and the young 

 are unable to probe for food. Audubon says that at 

 first they seem to feed on minute insects found on 

 the surface of the mud, or amid grass and moss. It is 

 possible that they do so, but probably no one knows 

 very clearly just how they are nourished for the first 

 few days of their lives ; but as they grow older and the 

 bill increases in length and strength, they begin to 

 feed as do the old ones, and probe the mire. 



On their return flight the snipe make their appear- 

 ance quite early and are often found on good ground 

 in small numbers in late August or early September. 

 If the weather has been very dry, so that the area 

 soft enough to admit of their food being procured is 

 contracted, snipe may often be found in considerable 

 numbers on small wet places ; but as the autumn flight 

 takes place gradually and slowly, the birds moving on 

 for short distances at a time, they are usually not found 

 in any such numbers as sometimes occur in spring 

 at the height of the migration, when some cold wave 

 checks the onward advance. 



It is commonly believed that snipe spend all their 

 time in wet and marshy places, and very likely they 

 do so, when undisturbed. Once, however, many years 

 ago, I visited a snipe ground near Vincennes, Ind., 

 where the birds were astonishingly abundant. We 



