Wilson's snipe. 183 



the Carrion Crow of Europe, and expresses some surprise tliat 

 Wilson should not have mentioned this difference. 



Frank Forrester, on the other hand, observes that the cry of 

 the two varieties is "perfectly identical^ and in this statement, he 

 further remarks that he is corroborated by the judgment of 

 several English Sportsmen, with whom he has frequently shot. 



This Snipe is known in Britain as the Common Snipe, Suite, 

 or Heather-bleater, and with us is called English Snipe, or 

 Wilson's Snipe. In Louisiana, the Creoles term it cache-cache, 

 the derivation of which, we imagine, arose from the well-known 

 retired or lurking habits of the Bird. 



" The Snipe is eleven inches long, seventeen inches in extent; 

 the bill over two inches and a half long, fluted lengthwise ; 

 brown color ; black towards the tip, crown black, divided by 

 an irregular line of pale brown ; another broader one of the 

 same tint passes over each eye; from the bill to the eye there 

 is a narrow dusky line ; neck and upper part of the breast pale 

 brown, variegated with touches of white and dusky; chin pale; 

 back and scapulars deep velvety black, the latter elegantly 

 marbled with waving lines of ferruginous, and broadly edged, 

 exteriorly, with white ; wings plain dusky, all the feathers, as 

 well as those of the coverts, tipped with white ; shoulder of the 

 wing deep dusky brown, exterior quill edged with white; tail 

 coverts long, reaching within three-quarters of an inch of the 

 tip, and of a pale rust-color, spotted with black ; tail rounded, 

 deep black, ending in a bar of bright ferruginous, crossed with 

 a narrow waving line of black, and tipped with whitish ; belly 

 pure white ; sides barred with dusky ; legs and feet a very pale, 

 ashy green; sometimes the whole thighs and sides of the vent 

 are barred with dusky and white. The female differs in being 

 more obscure in her colors ; the white on the back being less 

 pure, and the black not so deep." 



THEIR LOCATION AND FOOD. 



The Snipes of America spend the winter in the Southern 

 States, resorting to the rice fields of the Carolinas, where they 

 often congregate in immense numbers, and are said to be quite 

 tame compared with what they are when they stop with us at 



