286 RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 
in Louisiana. While watching their manner of walking and wading 
along sand-bars and muddy flats, I saw that as long as the water was 
not deeper than the length of their bills, they probed the ground be- 
neath them precisely in the manner of the American Snipe, Scolopawx 
Wilsoni ; but when the water reached their bodies, they immersed the 
head and a portion of the neck, and remained thus sufficiently long to 
satisfy me that, while in this position, they probed several spots before 
raising their head to breathe. On such grounds asare yet soft, although 
not covered with water, they bore holes as deep as the soil will admit, 
and this with surprising rapidity, occupying but a few moments in one 
spot, and probing as they advance. I have watched some dozens at 
this work for half an hour at a time, when I was completely concealed 
from their view. Godwits, which are also borers, probe the mud or moist 
earth often in an oblique direction, whilst the Woodcock, the Common 
Snipe, and the present species, thrust in their bills perpendicularly. 
The latter bird also seizes many sorts of insects, and at times small 
fry, as well as the seeds of plants that have dropped into the water. 
Dr Ricuarpson informs us that “ individuals killed on the Saskatche- 
wan plains had the crops filled with leeches and fragments of coleop- 
tera.” 
The flight of this bird is rapid, strong, and remarkably well-sus- 
tained. When rising in large numbers, which they usually do simul- 
taneously, they crowd together, are apt to launch upwards in the air 
for a while, and after performing several evolutions in contrary direc- 
tions, glide towards the ground, and wend their way close to it, until 
finding a suitable place, they alight in a very compact body, and stand 
for a moment. Sometimes, as if alarmed, they recommence their 
meandering flight, and after a while return to the same spot, alighting 
in the same manner. Then is the time when the gunner may carry 
havoe amongst them; but in two or three minutes they separate and 
search for food, when you must either put them up to have a good shot, 
or wait the arrival of another flock at the same place, which often hap- 
pens, for these birds seldom suffer any of their species to pass without 
sending them a note of invitation. It is not at all uncommon to shoot 
twenty or thirty of them at once. I have been present when 127 
were killed by discharging three barrels, and have heard of many 
dozens having been procured at a shot. When wounded and brought 
to the water, they try in vain to dive, and on reaching the nearest 
