476 MACEOKHAMPHUS GRISEUS, RED-BEEASTED SNIPE. 



hopeless muddle about our Bob Wbite before us. "Jack Suipe" is 

 another soubriquet of this bird, of do obvious application, indeed, but 

 not particularly bad, though the same term is also used to designate 

 the Pectoral Sandpiper (Actodromas maculata). 



Throughout the greater part of the United States the Snipe is found 

 only during the migrations, and in winter. It breeds, however, in 

 ZsTorthern New England, and may do so along other portions of our 

 northern border, although I have not so determined. Mr. Trippe speaks 

 of its common occurrence in Minnesota, from April to the close of Octo- 

 ber, but adds that he did not observe it to breed. In Northern Dakota, 

 likewise, where I enjoyed excellent Snipe-shooting late in September, I 

 found nothing to indicate its summer residence there. It is almost ex- 

 clusively a migrant through the Missouri region, though some probably 

 winter in the southern portions. Its migrations are pushed, at that 

 season, even to South America, and it also occurs in Mexico, Oentral 

 America, and the West Indies, according to numerous extraliniital 

 quotations. The eggs of Wilson's Snipe are moderately pyriform, and 

 measure about 1.60 by 1.13 ; some, however, being so small as 1.50 by 

 1.05. The ground color is a grayish-olive, with more or less brownish 

 shade in different specimens. The markings are numerous, generally 

 heavy, and often massed, though, as a rule, distinct; they may appear 

 all over the surface, but are always thickest and largest on the major 

 half of the egg. The color is umber-brown, of varying shade, according 

 to the depth or quantity of pigment. With these surface markings ;ire 

 associated some paler or obscure shell spots, not ordinarily so noticeable, 

 however, as in some other species. And over all we find, in occasional 

 specimens, curious sharp, straggling lines of what apjiears to be pure 

 black. The other markings have the ordinary splashed or blotched 

 character. The nest-complement is three or four. A set of eggs in the 

 Smithsonian is labeled Oneida County, New York. The nest is a mere 

 depression in the grass or moss of a boggy meadow ; the down of the 

 newly-hatched young is mottled with white, ashy, ochrey, and dark 

 brown. 



MACEOEHAMPHUS GEISBUS, (Gm.) Leach. 



Eed-breasted Snipe; Gray Snipe. 



ScolojKuc i/risea, Gm., S.vst. Nat. i, 1788, 6.58.— Lath., Ind. Om. ii, 1790, 724 (based on 

 Brown Snipe, Pekn., Arct. Zool. ii, 464, No. 369; Lath., Svn. v, 154). — Te.mm., 

 Man. ii, 18:20, 679.— Plem., Br. An 108.— Jexvxs, Man. Brit. Vert. 207.— ScHi-, 

 Eev. Crit. Ois. Eur. 86. 



Scolojnix (Macrorhamplms) grisea, Bp., Syu. 1828, 330, No. 267.— NuTT., Man. ii, 1834, 181. 



Macrorhamphus griseus, Leach, Cat. Brii. Jlus. 1816, 31. — Steph., Shaw's Gen. Zool. xii, 

 1824, 61.— Eyt., Cat. Br. B. 40.— Keys, dc Blas., Wirb. Eur. 7.5.— Macgil., JIan. 



Sal^'., Ibis, 1860, 277 ; 1865, 191 (Guatemala).— Wheat., Ohio Agric. Rep. 1860, 

 No. 204.— Eeixh., Ibis, iii, 1861, 11 (Greenland).— Blvs., B. Eur. ed. Newt. 1862, 

 18 (England; quotes Yaep.., ii, 621).— Boap.dm., Pr. Bost. Soc. is, 1862, 128 

 (Maine, summer visitant).— Verr., Pr. Ess. Inst, iii, 1862, 159 (Maine, coast in 



brero); viii, 1866, 293.— DitE.s.*., Ibis, 1866, 36 (Matamoras).— Dall & B.orx., 

 Tr. Chic. Acad, i, 1869, 291 (Alaska, breeding).— Tuunb., B. E. Pa. 1869, 30 

 (April and August).— Cotes, Pr. Bost. Soc. xii, 1868, 122 (South Carolina) ; Pr. 

 Phila. Acad. 1861, 259 (Labrador); 1866, 97 (Arizona); 1871, 30 (North Caro- 

 lina).— Allex, Bull. M. C. Z. iii, 1872, 181 (Utah).— Tkippe, Pr. Bost. Soc. xv, 

 1S72, 241 (Iowa).— Ma YX., Guide, 1870, 139 (Massachusetts, migratory).— CoUES, 



