160 'BIRD NAMES. [No. 45. 



with white. Bill greenish black, lighter at the base, and thor- 

 oughly snipe -like (the end being flattened and having little 

 inequalities much as in No. 44). Legs and feet dull yellowish 

 green, the outer and middle toes connected at base by a smaD, 

 though noticeable, membrane. 



Winter plumage. Light gray, nearly plain about the head, 

 neck, and fore part of body; wings and shoulder feathers va- 

 riegated with grayish brown and edgings of yellowish white; 

 lower back white ; the sides of head whitish, with a dusky line 

 from bill through the eye ; region about flanks and back of the 

 thighs white ; bill, legs, and feet as in summer. 



Measurements about as follows : length ten and a quarter to 

 eleven inches ; extent seventeen and a half to nineteen inches ; 

 bill two and a quarter to two and five eighths inches. 



Eange, as given in A. 0. U. Check List : " Eastern North 

 America, breeding far north," 



RED-BREASTED SNIPE (commonly so termed in the books ; 

 see Western Eed-breasted Snipe, No. 46, found East occasion- 

 ally): GRAY SNIPE: BROWN SNIPE: NEW YORK GODWIT of 

 Swainson and Bichardson, 1831. 



In Maine at Portland and Pine Point, at Portsmouth, N. H., 

 in Massachusetts at Salem, Provincetown, and West Barnstable, 

 in New Jersey at Barnegat and Tuckerton, and on Hog Island, 

 Va., BROWN-BACK ; and Giraud mentions this name as common 

 at Egg Harbor, N. J., 1844 (see No. 51). In Massachusetts at 

 Salem, Eowley, Ipswich, in the vicinity of Boston and at Chat- 

 ham, and in Connecticut at Lyme and Saybrook, ROBIN-SNIPE 

 (see No. 52). At North Plymouth, Mass., DRIVER. At Stratford, 

 Conn., and Seaford (Hempstead), L. I., DOWITCHER ; on Long 

 Island at Shinnecock Bay, Moriches, and Bellport, and at Barne- 

 gat, N. J., DOWITCH (see No. 51). These names Dowitch and 

 Dowitcher meant originally that this was the Dutch, or German, 

 snipe (Duitsoh, Deutscher), and were probably employed to dis- 

 tinguish No. 45 particularly from the " English " snipe, No. 44. 

 Giraud says, in his Birds of Long Island, 1844 : " Our gunners, 

 as if fearful that nothing would be left to connect the past with 



