478 MACEOEHAMPHUS GEISEUS, EED-BEEASTED SNIPE 



over the interior, along our larger water-courses. The spring passage 

 is performed with greater celerity than the return in the autumn, when 

 they linger leisurely over suitable feeding grounds all the way along. 

 Many winter in the southern portions of the Union, though others reach 

 South America, even Brazil and Chili. I have found them in ISTovem- 

 ber in Southern California and the Carolinas, in both of which regions 

 some probably winter. In the spring passage many are found in nearlj' 

 or quite perfect dress, like the Golden Plovers, but in the fall the gray 

 plumage is mostly assumed before they reach the United States, the 

 change doubtless occurring as soon as the duties of incubation are com- 

 pleted, though traces of the summer vesture, in a few black, bay-edged 

 feathers of the upper parts, and a slight rnfescence of the under plumage, 

 may frequently be observed until October. The earliest period when 1 

 have seen the birds anywhere in the United States was the first week 

 in August, in Northern Dakota, and I was led to infer, from the evident 

 youth of the specimens then secured, that they were bred there, or not 

 far off. We have, however, no more unquestionable instance of the 

 breeding within our limits. Writers upon Maine birds speak of the spe- 

 cies as a " summer visitor," and Dr. Suckley, in Washington Territory, re- 

 fers to a May specimen he supposed to be breeding. So little has hith- 

 erto been made known of the breeding of the species, that I have the 

 more pleasure in giving an account. Mr. Dall found it nesting in Alaska, 

 and the eggs are in the Smithsonian. "I found a nest of this species," 

 he says, "on the 3d of June, and on the 6th secured the parent bird with 

 the eggs. The nest was a simple hollow in the ground, in a grassy 

 hummock, in the centre of a marshy spot, with scarcely any lining what- 

 ever — nothing in the shape of a nest to bring away. The female, when 

 startled from the nest, shuftied off with gxeat rapidity among the grassy 

 hummocks, making a very diflicult mark to shoot at." Yery little has 

 been recorded of the breeding resorts of the Macrorhamphus, while the 

 eggs are almost unknown. Several sets are in the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, collected by the indefatigable MacFarlane, at the Anderson 

 Eiver Eort, and on the Arctic coast, east of that river. They were 

 taken late in June, at which season they appear to have been fresh, or 

 nearly so. The labels state that the eggs were placed on a few dried 

 leaves, in or around a marshy tract. One set contains four eggs, another 

 three, another only two ; but we must presume that four is the regular 

 nest-complement. The eggs are not peculiar among their allies in any 

 respect, and probably no description would suffice for their positive 

 identification. The following-measurements indicate the size and shape: 

 1.75 by 1.15 (unusually long, narrow, and pointed}; 1.70 by 1.15; 1.62 

 by 1.12 (about an average) ; 1.68 by 1.10 ; 1.55 by 1.10 (very short). 

 Tbe ground-color is the same as in Gallinago, with all its variation, 

 while the general character of tbe markings is identical, even to the 

 occasional occurrence of sharp, black tracery over the ordinary spots 

 and blotches. One of the eggs has the markings rather chocolate than 

 umber-brown, and much smaller and more diffuse than they are in any 

 of the examples of Gallinago which happen to be before me. 



On the sand-bars, muddy flats, and marshy meadows of the North 

 Carolina coast I found the Gray-backs very common, in flocks, all 

 through the fall, associated with Godwits, Telltales, and various Sand- 

 pipers. But nowhere have I seen them so abundant as in Dakota 

 during the fall passage — everywhere on the ponds, and especially in the 

 saline pools of the alkali region along the Upper Missouri. There the 

 birds were loitering in great flocks, wading in water so loaded with 

 alkali that it looked sea-green and blew off a white cloud with the slight- 



