RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 303 



these birds were killed at one discharge of a large-sized fowling- 

 piece ; and we have killed, repeatedly, six or eight at a shot. 



They are certainly far less wary than most other shore-birds, 

 and when feeding in company are always the last to take the 

 alarm; they are easily deceived by the bay-shooters, and many 

 fall victims to the treacherous decoys. 



Their food consists of small snails, and aquatic insects that are 

 washed up by the tide. 



DESCRIPTION. 



"The red-breasted snipe is ten inches and a half long and 

 eighteen inches in extent; the bill is about two inches and a 

 quarter in length, straight, grooved, black towards the point, and 

 of a dirty eel-skin-color at the base, where it is tumid and wrinkled ; 

 lores dusky; cheeks and eyebrows pale yellowish-white, mottled 

 with specks of black ; throat and breast a reddish-buff color ; sides 

 white, barred with black ; belly and vent white, the latter barred 

 with dusky ; crown, neck above, back, scapulars, and tertials black, 

 edged, mottled, and marbled with yellowish-white, pale and bright 

 ferruginous, much in the same manner as the common snipe ; wings 

 plain olive, the secondaries centred and bordered with white ; shaft 

 of the first quill very white; rump, tail-coverts, and tail, (which 

 consists of twelve feathers,) white, thickly spotted with black ; legs 

 and feet dull yellowish-green ; outer toe united to the middle one 

 by a small membrane ; eye very dark. The female is paler on the 

 back and less ruddy on the breast." 



OTHER VARIETIES OP SHORE-BIRDS. 



THERE are several other varieties of the snipe species that sports- 

 men eagerly seek after while shooting on the sea-shore marshes ; 

 it cannot be expected of us, however, to describe all these birds. 

 We shall, therefore, be forced to pass them by with two exceptions, 

 namely, the 



