and the Maritime Provinces. 115 



" They do," I replied, " as a rule, but like many other birds, they will 

 nest almost anywhere that their fancy leads them." 



" The common, or Wilson's snipe, is quite a different bird from the 

 red-breasted snipe, or 'dowitcher,' that we get on Long island and in 

 New Jersey so plentifully," said the Doctor, "yet many gunners class 

 them as the same species. I have heard both birds called the jack snipe, 

 yet neither is rightly entitled to the name." 



"Yes," I replied, "the dowitcher is different in plumage, form and 

 habits from the Wilson's snipe, although by many gunners, as you say, 

 they are regarded as identical. The dowitcher is the Macrorhamphus 

 grisens of scientists, though formerly called the Scolopax noveboracensis. 

 By sportsmen it is known by a variety of names, such as the dowitcher, 

 red-breasted snipe, brownback, robin snipe, grayback, and quail snipe. 

 It is one of the most common of our shore birds, and is well-known 

 from Maine to New Jersey. In the spring migration it arrives on the 

 coast of New England late in April or early in May, when it frequents the 

 muddy flats in search of small crustaceans, and the marshes, where it 

 probes for worms after the manner of the common snipe. 



" Its stay with us at this season is but a brief one, and it continues 

 its flight to the far north, where it passes the breeding season." 



"In July, sometimes as early as the fifteenth, it returns in flocks of 

 greater or less size, and remains on our coast until near the close of 

 September. Its quail-like whistle is well known to sportsmen, who by 

 adroitly imitating it, call the birds to their decoys, and so sociable and so 

 unsuspicious is this snipe, that it returns again and again to the whistle of 

 the sportsman, who is hidden in the tall grass or among the weeds of the 

 marshes, until sometimes the entire flock is killed." 



"Yes," said the Doctor ; "the red- breast is one of the most unsuspi- 

 cious of birds, and one that is easily decoyed. I have had rare sport with 

 them in my blind of sea-weed or grass. The Jersey gunners are very suc- 

 cessful with it ; they put out a large number of decoys, usually in or about 

 a shallow pool of water in the marsh, and they can call down a flock no 

 matter how high it may be passing by; as you say, they will come back at 

 the whistle of the sportsman, and even alight among the decoys and their 

 dead comrades until the last survivor is shot. The dowitcher is fond of 

 visiting the shallow ponds in the marshes, where it wades about in search 

 of small shells and insects; it is not so fine a table bird as the common 

 snipe, but in the fall, when it becomes very fat, it is by no means unattrac- 

 tive to the epicure." 



"They are not always so unsuspicious," said I. "I have known them 

 to keep high in the air and refuse to respond to my call. I have noticed 

 this to occur most often when a strong easterly wind was blowing, but gen- 

 erally they are among the most easily decoyed of all our 'bay birds'; in 



