242 lewis' AMERICAN SPORTSMAN. 



Soutli. These Snipes fly in large flocks, and feed in thick masses 

 upon the points, and will often allow a boat to approach them 

 sufficiently near to give them a raking shot fore and aft, that 

 not unfrequently spreads death and destruction through the 

 greater portion of their affrighted ranks. A¥e were present ou 

 one occasion when twenty-three of these Birds were killed at 

 one discharge of a large-sized foAvling-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 fall 

 easy victims when attracted by decoys. 



Their food consists of small snails and aquatic insects that 

 are washed up by the tide. 



DESCRIPTION. 



" The Eed-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 j^ellowish- 

 white, mottled with specks of black ; throat and breast a reddish 

 buff color; sides white, barred with black; belly aud vent white, 

 the latter barred with dusky; crown, neck above, back, scapu- 

 lars, and tertials black, edged, mottled, and marbled with yel- 

 lowish-Avhite, 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 OF SHORE BIRDS. 



There arc several other varieties of the Snipe species that 

 Sportsmen eagerly seek after while shooting on the sea-shore 



