192 PR.ECOCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOL^. 



set, but at times continuing an hour and a half later. The noise made on these occa- 

 sions he compares to rapidly repeated switches of a cane in the air ; and this was 

 repeated every half-minute, with occasional longer intervals. The sound lasted about 

 three seconds, and was made as the bird descended rapidly in a vertical direction, 

 being caused apparently by the quill-feathers of the wings. This sometimes took 

 place in the middle of the day, but only during the love-season. 



According to Dresser, the Snipe is very common about San Antonio, Texas, during 

 the winter, and was last noticed on the 20th of April, none having been seen during 

 the previous week ; according to Mr. Moore, it passes the winter in Florida. 



Attention lias been called by different writers to the occasional perching of the 

 Snipe on trees, as if something unusual ; but it is by no means an uncommon occur- 

 rence during the breeding-season, and the bird is said to do this chiefly or wholly 

 when its nest or young are disturbed. 



The nest of the Snipe is always on the ground, and is constriTcted in the most 

 simple manner, it being nothing more than a hollow made in the grass or moss, and 

 lined with a little dry grass or a few feathers. The usual number of the eggs is four, 

 and the young run about as soon as they are hatched. At hrst they feed on larvse, 

 small insects, and snails ; but at the end of a few weeks their bills have sufficiently 

 hardened to enable them to penetrate into the moist ground and obtain the worms 

 they prefer. 



Mr. MacFarlane found the Snipe breeding near Fort Anderson, June 16. The nest 

 was on the ground, and was com^josed of a few decayed leaves placed in a small 

 hole made in the earth. Another nest was obtained in the same neighborhood, June 

 29, near a small lake, and was a mere hole in the ground, lined with a small quan- 

 tity of hay and a few decayed leaves. 1 have an egg of this species taken from 

 a nest on the Delaware, near Philadelphia, and others from Niagara Falls, Northern 

 New York, Lake Koskonong. Wisconsin, Pictou, Nova Scotia, and Dakota Territory. 



The eggs of this species are always four in number, and of a pyriform shape, with 

 one end broadly obtuse and the other rapidly tapering. The ground-color is usually 

 of a light olivaceous brown ; in some it is of a light grayish di'ab, and occasionally a 

 rufous drab. The spots are uniformly of a bright sepia, small and scattered at the 

 smaller apex, but larger, and often confluent, about the other end. The eggs measure 

 1.50 inches in length and 1.18 in breadth, and are less variable in size than those of 

 most of the Wading-birds. 



Gallinago coelestis. 



THE EUROPEAN SNIPE. 



Scolopax gallinago, Linn. S. N. cd. 10, 175S, 147 ; chI. 10, 1766, 214. — Naum. Vtig. Deiitschl. VIl. 



1836, 310, pi. 209. — ScHLEG. Rev. Crit. 86. — Macoill. Mau. II. 103. 

 Asculopax gallinugo. Keys. & Bl.\s. AVirb. Eur. 77. 

 Scolopax coelestis, Feenzel, Besch. Vog. Eier Geg. Wittenb. 1801, 58 (cf. Stejnegee, Proc. U. S. 



Nat. Mus. Vol. 5, 1882, p. 35). 

 .Gallinago media, Le.\ch. Syst. Cat. 1816, 31. — Steph. Gen. Zool. XII. 54. — Gray, Gen. B. III. 



583 ; Cat. Brit. B. 1863, 173. — EiDGW. Nom. N. Am. B. 1881, no. 526. — Coues, Check List, 



2d ed. 1882, no. 607. 

 OalUnago scolopaoinus, Bonap. Comp. List, 1838, 52. 



Telmatias seplentrionalis, stagnatilis, and fcercensis, Bp.ehm, Vog. Deutscbl. 

 ? Scolopax Dclamotti, Matth. in Zoologist, 1852, 3729. 

 Co-mmon Snipe, Yarp.. Brit. B. ed. 2, III. 25, fig. ; ed. 3, III. 31. fig. ; et ArcT. 



Hab. Palaearctic Region ; frequent iu Greenland (cf. Reishardt, "Ibis," 1861, p. 11), and 

 accidental in tbe Bermudas. 



