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THE AMERICAN SNIPE 



ScoLOPAx Wilson 1 1, Temm. 



PLATE CCXLIII. Male, Female, and Young in Autumn. 



The summer range of the Common American Snipe extend s_^north- 

 ward to a considerable distance beyond the limits of the United States. 

 During the breeding season it is not to be found in our Southern Dis- 

 tricts, much less does it breed on the borders of the Mississippi, as has 

 been alleged by some writers. It may indeed sometimes happen that a 

 pair is found during summer in the mountainous districts of the Caro- 

 linas; but occurrences of this kind are rare, and are probably caused by 

 one of the birds being disabled, and so prevented from prosecuting its 

 journey farther northward, although not incapacitated for reproduction. 

 Some pairs are more frequently met with in Virginia, Maryland and 

 Pennsylvania, either Avith eggs or with young, but the great body of this 

 species goes farther north for the purpose of breeding. In the State of 

 Maine, they become tolerably abundant at this season, and as you pro- 

 ceed eastward you find them more numerous. In Nova Scotia they are 

 plentiful during summer, and there they breed in all convenient places. 



In these northern districts, the Snipe begins to lay its eggs in the early 

 part of June. The swampy parts of the extensive moss-covered marshes 

 in elevated situations afford it places of security and comfort, in which it 

 is not likely to be disturbed by man, and finds immediately around it an 

 abundance of food. The nest itself is a mere hollow in the moss, scantily in- 

 laid with a few grasses. The eggs, which, like those of many of the Tringas, 

 are four, and placed with the small ends together, measure one inch and 

 five-eighths by one and one-eighth, being pyriform, with the tip some- 

 what inflated. The ground colour is a yellowish-olive, pretty thickly 

 spotted and blotched with light and dark umber, the markings increas- 

 ing in size as they approach the large end, where they form a circle. 

 The young, like those of the Woodcock, leave the nests as soon as hatched, 

 and so resemble those of the Common Snipe of Europe, Scolopax GcH- 

 linago, that the same description answers for both, they being covered 

 with down of different tints of brown and greyish-yellow. The bill is at 

 this age short, very soft and easily bent by the least pressure ; nor does it 



