CHAPTEE XXI. 



RED-BREASTED SNIPE. SCOLOPAX NOVEBORACENSIS. 



HABITS, NOMENCLATURE, ETC. 



This Snipe resembles very mncli in size and plumage the 

 common Snipe, more particularly wlien in its winter plumage; 

 it is, however, altogether different in its habits, as well as in the 

 flavor of its flesh. The English or Wilson Snipe affects fresh- 

 water marshes only, while the present species confines itself 

 almost exclusively to the salt marshes of our Atlantic States. 

 The English Snipe is mostly a solitary Bird, while the Eed- 

 Breasted Snipes congregate in immense flocks upon the mud- 

 flats and sand-bars. This Snipe, we believe, is known to our 

 Coast-Shooters as the Brown Back, or Dowitcher, and we have 

 found it far more palatable perhaps than any other kind of sea- 

 Bird, although very considerably smaller than the Curlew, Wil- 

 let, or Plover. Being so much smaller than those other Birds, 

 this Snipe is not so much sought after as some others ; we, how- 

 ever, never let an opportunity pass to bring them to bag, when 

 on these excursions, oftentimes in preference to the other 

 Birds, which are always far more sedgy, and not unfrequently 

 fishy besides. 



The Eed-Breasted, or as it is also called the Quail Snipe, arrive 

 on the coast of Jersey from the South on their way to their 

 breeding-grounds further Noi^th, about the first week in May, 

 remain a short time, and then stretch off" for the Canadas. To- 

 wards the middle of July they commence returning in increased 

 numbers, and remain feeding on the marshes till the commence- 

 ment of the cold weather, when they take themselves to the 

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