170 WADING BIRDS. 



plains of the Saskatchewan, according to Richardson, they feed 

 much upon leeches and coleoptera, for which, no doubt, they 

 probe the mud and sphagnum of the bogs and marshes, — a habit 

 which they also pursue while here, on their way to the South, 

 particularly collecting the larvae of aquatic insects, such as 

 Libellula and others. The nest and eggs of this species are 

 yet unknown. The ovaries in females killed in May were 

 already swelled to the size of peas. By the 20th of July or 

 beginning of August they revisit the shores of New England 

 and the Middle States in large flocks recruited by their young. 

 These are already full grown, in good condition for the table, 

 and are at all times greatly esteemed for their excellent flavor. 

 The Red-breasted Snipes are always seen associated in flocks, 

 and though many are bred in the interior around the Great 

 Northern Lakes, they now all assemble towards the sea-coast, as 

 a region that affords them an inexhaustible supply of their 

 favorite food of insects, mollusca, and small shellfish ; and here 

 they continue, or a succession of wandering and needy bands, 

 until the commencement of cold weather advertises them of 

 the approach of famine, when, by degrees, they recede beyond 

 the southern limits of the Union. While here they appear 

 very lively, performing their aerial evolutions over the marshes 

 at a great height sometimes in the air, uttering at the same 

 time a loud, shrill, and quivering whistle, scarcely distinguish- 

 able from that of the Yellow-Legged Tatler (something like 

 'fe-te-te, ^ie-fe-te) . The same loud and querulous whistling is 

 also made as they rise from the ground, when they usually 

 make a number of circuitous turns in the air before they de- 

 scend. At all times gregarious, in the autumn and spring they 

 sometimes settle so close together that several dozens have 

 been killed at a single shot. While feeding on the shores or 

 sandbars, they may be sometimes advantageously approached 

 by a boat, of which, very naturally, they have but little fear or 

 suspicion ; nor are they at any time so shy as the Common Snipe, 

 alighting often within a few rods of the place where their com- 

 panions have been shot, without exhibiting alarm until harassed 

 by successive firing. Besides mollusca, they occasionally vary 



