RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 2&7 
part of the shore, they usually run a few steps and squat among the 
grass,, when it becomes difficult to find them. ‘Those which have 
escaped unhurt often remain looking upon their dead companions, some- 
times waiting until shot at a second time. When they are fat, they 
afford good eating, but their flesh is at no time so savoury as that of the 
common American Snipe. 
The cry of this species when on wing is a single and rather mel- 
low weet. When on the ground I have heard them emit a continued 
guttural rolling sound, such as is on certain occasions given out by the 
species last mentioned. Their call-note resembles the soft and pleas- 
ing sound of a whistle; but I have never heard them emit it while 
travelling. Nothing is known respecting their breeding, and yet there 
can be little doubt that many of them must rear young within the 
limits of the Union. 
By the Creoles of Louisiana the Red-breasted Snipe is named 
«¢ Becassine de Mer,” as well as “ Carouk.” In South Carolina it is 
more abundant in the autumnal months than in spring, when I should 
think they fly directly across from the Floridas toward Cape Hatteras, 
as my friend Dr Bacuman informs me that he never saw one of them 
in spring in the vicinity of Charleston. 
Sconorax NovEBORACENSIS, Gel. Syst. Nat. vol. i. p. 658.—Lath. Ind. Ornith. 
vol. ii. p. 723: 
Scotopax GRIsEA, Gmel. Syst. Nat. vol.i. p.658.—Lath. Ind. Ornith. vol. ii. p. 724. 
—Ch. Bonaparte, Synopsis of Birds of United States, p. 330. 
Rep-BreastED SyrPe, Wilson, Amer. Ornith. vol. vii. p. 48, pl. 58, fig. 2. Summer. 
ScoLopax NOVEBORACENSIS, New Yorx Gopwir, Richards. and Swains. Fauna 
Bor.-Amer. vol. ii. p, 398. 
Brown or RED BreastepD Snipe, Nuttall, Manual, vol. ii. p. 181. 
Adult Male in summer. Plate CCCXXXV. Fig. 1. 
Bill twice as long as the head, subulate, straight, compressed for 
more than half its length, depressed towards the end. Upper man- 
dible with the dorsal line declinate at the base, then straight, at the 
end slightly arched, that part being considerably enlarged, the ridge 
convex, towards the end flattened, the sides with a narrow groove ex- 
tending to near the tip, the edges soft and obtuse or flattened, the tip 
narrowed but blunt. Nostrils basal, linear, very small. Lower man- 
dible with the angle extremely long and narrow, the sides nearly erect, 
