24 NORTH AMERICAN SHOREBIRDS. 
Winter range —During the winter season some Wilson snipe leave 
the United States and pass even to northern South America, on the 
east side to Rio Janeiro (Pelzeln) and on the west to Medellin, Colom- 
bia (Sclater and Salvin). A few winter in the Lesser Antilles and 
many in Jamaica, Cuba, and the Bahamas. The species is common 
in Mexico and Guatemala, less common in the remainder of Central 
America. A large part of the species winters in the southern United 
States, where it was formerly enormously abundant. No exact 
limit can be given to the northern range in winter. The Wilson 
snipe can not live where the ground is frozen. Hence the normal 
northern winter limit would*extend from North’ Carolina through 
Arkansas to New Mexico and on the Pacific slope to northern Cali- 
fornia. But many snipe pass the winter much north of the zone of 
frozen ground, feeding about streams or springs. A few can be found 
almost every winter on Cape Cod, Massachusetts (Mackay), and a pair 
were seen during January and February, 1896, as far north even as 
Wolfville, Nova Scotia (Tufts). From the Mississippi Valley snipe 
are reported as wintering north to northern Illinois and northern 
Nebraska (Bruner, Wolcott, and Swenk), while in the Rocky Moun- 
tains of Colorado at 8,000 feet near Sweetwater Lake, the presence 
of warm springs has enabled them to remain the entire winter, 
though the air temperature fell to —30° F. (Gilmore). They have 
been known also to winter in northern Montana (Coubeaux) and 
northern Washington (Snyder).- A few. snipe appear almost every 
fall in the Bermuda Islands (Jardine) and sometimes remain through 
the winter, though usually they are rare in spring. 
Spring migration.—aA series of nearly twenty years of observations 
near Alexandria, Va., gives the average date of arrival as March 8, 
with the earliest February 17, 1897 (Greenwood); the species is 
most common the last week in March. The average date of arrival 
in central New Jersey is March 22, earliest March 4, 1877. Some 
other dates of arrival are: Central Connecticut, average March 23, 
earliest March 18, 1894; eastern Massachusetts, average April 2, 
earliest March 21, 1887; southwestern Maine, average April 27, 
earliest April 14, 1897; Scotch Lake, New Brunswick, earliest April 
5, 1907 (Moora); Pietau, Nova. Scotia, average April 19, earliest 
April 11, 1889 (Mackinlay); city of Quebec, average April 23, 
earliest April 18, 1899 (Dionne). 
The movements in the Mississippi Valley are at closely corre- 
sponding dates: Central Missouri, average date of arrival March 13, 
earliest February 17, 1897; Oberlin, Ohio, average March 28, earliest 
March 19, 1897 (Jones); Chicago, IIL, average April 3, earliest 
March 17, 1894 (Blackwelder) ; eaithern Michigan, average April 3, 
earliest March 21, 1893; southern Ontario, average April 15, earliest 
April 1, 1900; Ottaws, Ontario , average April 26, earliest April 12, 1902 
