120 NOTES ON THE 
But when they return in that month, instead of affecting the 
former localities, they are generally found in cultivated fields, 
amidst corn, grain shocks, etc., and occasionally in ditches in 
the meadows. Itinerant collectors have failed to contribute 
any information about this species in other sections of the 
State, and Iam left to sportsmen for facts concerning their 
local distribution. Through them I have ascertained that 
while nowhere extremely abundant, it is found in all sections 
favorable for their securing food. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Bill long, compressed, punctured and corrugated near the 
end; upper mandible longest, and fitted to lower at the tip; 
wings moderate, first three quills very narrow; tail short; legs 
moderate; eyes inserted unusually distant from the bill; occi- 
put with three transverse bands of black, alternating with 
three others of pale, yellowish rufous; upper parts of the body 
variegated with pale ashy, rufous, or yellowish-red of various 
shades, and black; large space in front, and throat, reddish- 
ashy; line from the eye to the bill, and another on the neck 
below the eye, brownish-black; entire under parts pale rufous, 
brighter on the sides and under wing coverts; quills ashy- 
brown; tail feathers, brownish-black, tipped with ashy, darker 
on the upper surface, paler and frequently white on the under; 
bill light brown, paler and yellowish at the base; legs pale 
reddish; iris brown. ; 
Length, 11; wing, 5.25; tail, 2.25; tarsus, 1.25. 
Habitat, eastern province of North America, north to Brit- 
ish provinces, west to Dakota, Kansas, eic. 
GALLINAGO DELICATA (ORD). (230.) 
WILSON’S SNIPE. 
In the last days of February, some sixteen years ago, the 
Ducks, Geese, and this species of Snipe came into this latitude 
as unseasonably as the farmers commenced sowing their wheat. 
And cold as several ‘‘snaps” were subsequently, none of these 
species left the country, appearing constantly afterwards on 
the fields and in the marshes where the waters were open. 
The Snipes are usually either preceded by the Geese and 
Ducks somewhat, or being quite nocturnal in their habits, are 
overlooked for more or less time after their arrival, which is 
probably the case. Excepting the spring mentioned, and 
another in which they were observed on the 27th of March, 
they have never come under my notice, nor have they been re- 
ported to me by others before the first of April. 
