122 NOTES ON THE 
nearly white, and barred with black throughout their length; 
bill brown, yellowish at base and darker towards the end; 
legs dark brown; iris hazel. 
Length, 10.50; wing, 5; tail, 2.25; bill, 2.50; tarsus, 1.25. 
Habitat, Temperate North America. 
MACRORHAMPHUS SCOLOPACEUS (Say). (282.) 
LONG-BILLED DOWITCHER. 
The migrations of this Snipe do not materially differ in any 
respect from Wilson’s. If anything, it is habitually the more 
abundantly represented, especially in the fall migrations. Some- 
times they reach us simultaneously with the earlier Ducks, but 
more frequently they are in spring a little later. They fly very 
compactly, and are thus slaughtered in great numbers for the 
market in the autumn. In the absence of positive proof L 
nevertheless believe that they breed here more or less, as they 
are occasionally met with until late in July when they are 
moulting, and seek the most secluded and unapproachable 
places. Scarcely a season passes in which I do not meet a 
few solitary individuals in my own county, and wherever I go 
I get the same report. It is often well into October before the 
last of them are gone. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. 
Rather smaller than the preceding; bill long, compressed, 
flattened, and expanded towards the end where it is punctula- 
ted and corrugated; wing rather long, shaft of first primary 
strong; tail short, legs rather long; upper parts variegated 
with dark ashy, pale reddish and black, the latter predomi- 
nating on the back; rump and upper tail coverts white, the 
latter spotted and barred transversely with black; under parts 
pale ferruginous-red, with numerous points and circular spots 
of brownish-black on the neck before, and transverse bands of 
the same on the sides and under tail coverts; axillary feathers 
and under wing coverts white, spotted and transversely barred 
with black; quills brownish-black, shaft of first primary white; 
tail brownish-black, with numerous transverse bands of ashy 
white, frequently tinged with ferruginous, especially on the two 
middle feathers; bill greenish-black; legs dark greenish-brown. 
Length, 10; wing, 5.75; tail, 2.25; bill, 2.25; tarsus, 1.25. 
Habitat, Mississippi Valley and Western Province of North 
America. 
Nort. After Dr. Coues had spoken so emphatically in the 
rejection of the specific name of this species, in his Birds of 
the Northwest, p. 477, and upon what seemed to be the best of 
reasons, I am not a little surprised to find it adopted by the 
American Ornithological Union. 
