342 The Water-fowl Family 



the breeding season its " bleating " is a frequent 

 sound during the morning hours. At this time 

 the male flies up, slantingly, in the air, with 

 rapidly beating wings, uttering his shrill note 

 until he reaches a height of about iooofeet, when 

 he twists and wheels in irregular course, calling a 

 loud, shrill zoo-zee; then he darts for earth in 

 headlong flight, making a noise that some have 

 likened to distant thunder, and others to a bleat. 



Wilson's snipe 



(Gallinago delicatd) 



Adult male and female — Bill, long, flattened, and slightly expanded 

 at the tip, punctulated in its terminal half; top of head and 

 entire upper parts, brownish black, each feather spotted and 

 edged with light rufous ; back and rump, barred and spotted in 

 the same way ; a stripe over each eye and on top of head, buff; 

 neck, buff, marked with fine black spots or lines ; wing feathers 

 marked with brownish black ; other under parts, white, with 

 dusky transverse bars on the sides, axillary feathers, under 

 wing-coverts, and tail-coverts ; quills, dark ; tail, soft brownish 

 black, tipped with bright rufous, and with a subterminal narrow 

 band of black ; tail, consists of sixteen feathers ; bill, legs, and 

 feet, greenish gray ; iris, brown. 



Measurements — Length, n inches; wing, 5.50 inches; tail, 2.25 

 inches; bill, 2.50 inches; tarsus, 1.25 inches. 



Young — Plumage closely resembles the adult, but the breast is 

 lighter, not as closely mottled and lined. 



Eggs — Four in number ; pyriform in shape ; ground color, light 

 olive, dotted with small dark spots, largest and most abundant 

 at the broad end; measure 1.50 by 1.18 inches. 



Habitat — Breeds from Maine, rarely Massachusetts, Connecticut, 

 and New York, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Minnesota, North 

 Dakota, and Oregon, south in the mountains to Pennsylvania, 

 Colorado, Utah (?), Nevada, and northern California, north to 



