Birds. 8285 



bapged eight hundred ; consequently I ouo;ht to know a snipe from a sandpiper, even 

 on the winj; ; but these birds were handled, and one of them skinned ; ihe rest I pre- 

 sented to the commander of the ' Circassian,' who said that though he had known 

 many of his passengers go out snipe-shooting, I was the first who had brought any on 

 board. They were preserved in ice and taken to Portland, Maine. Should there still 

 be unbelievers, as doubtless there will, let them take ship for St. John's, and, though 

 not very cr^ck shots, may there shoot a snipe. I shall be ready to aflford them every 

 information, and point out where the snipes were found napping on the 23rd and 24th 

 of July, 1857. Whether the European snipe perches I cannot undertake to say, but 

 that it may do so I think not unlikely. A friend in the North, who has a good know- 

 ledge of birds, informs me that he has seen a suipe perched on a stone. Nor would it 

 surprise me to hear that they had been found perching, during the heat of the day, on 

 either rail or dyke. The following description (taken in the flesh) of one of the darker 

 specimens of Scolopax americanus is extracted from my note-book : — " On comparing 

 it with four others I find it considerably darker than the rest, and the scapulars more 

 elongated. It is II inches in length, 17 in extent of wings, from flexure 5 inches 

 4-tei)ths. Bill along the ridge 2 inches 6-tenths. Tarsus 1 inch 2-tentlis. Middle 

 toe 1 inch 1-founh, claw 2^-tenths ; inner toe 1 inch 1-teuth, claw H-tenth ; outer 

 toe 9-tenths, claw l^ tenth ; back toe 3^-tenths, claw 1 -tenth. The elongated scapulars 

 and posterior feathers are black at the base and centre, margined on the outer webs with 

 white tinged with yellow, and on the inner with small, oblong, reddish yellow and white 

 spots (in a ground of black on both webs, uniting on the shaft. Near the shafts on both 

 webs are rows of still more minute spots of rufous, which, uniting at a quarter of an inch 

 from the extremity, form au acute angle. Two of the posterior feathers are 2^ inches in 

 length, the axillaries being also very elongated, some of ihera measuring 2^ inches ; 

 they are of a pure transparent white, with regular diagonal bars. Many of the scapu- 

 lars, though sooty at the base, are of a pure glossy black towards the ends, which 

 are slightly tipped with white. There are on some of these feathers three or four 

 irregular bars of bright reddish yellow, with two and three white spots on the exterior 

 margins. The upper mandible is of a dark horn colour, with a reddish tinge; the 

 lower is of the same colour, except at the base, which is light. There is a line of red- 

 dish brown down the centre of the head (which is black), and bands of the same at the 

 sides, from the base of the upper mandible to the nape. There is also a patch of black 

 from the gape to near the eye, bordered by gray. From the nape to the shoulder the 

 neck is rufous, but each feather is black near the shaft, and some of them are mar- 

 gined and tipped with white. The feathers of the anterior part of the back are black, 

 but mostly with the outer webs partially while or reddish yellow ; and some of the pos- 

 terior feathers are grayish black, margined with white, but the greater part are reddish 

 yellow, barred with triangular transverse black spots, the shafts being of the same 

 colour. Upper tail-coverts of a yellowish brown, with transverse black markings ; 

 some tof the feathers lipped with while. The tail, which is rounded, is 2J inches in 

 length ; it has sixteen feathers, the centre longest. They are all black at the base, 

 except the three exterior ones. The first lateral feather is white, broadly barred with 

 black crossing both webs, and it is slightly tipped with the same: the second is almost 

 similarly maiked, except that the white on the centre of the feather is tinged with 

 rufous between the first and second black bar, and there is a minute black spot at the 

 lip : third black from the base for more than half its length, with a spot of yellowish 

 white near the shaft, and two more spots of the same colour on the margin of each 



