96 AMERICAN GAME, 
sons ignorantly and obstinately assert the reverse; the 
true Jack Snipe being a northern bird of Europe: and 
Asia, visiting the milder climates during the hard 
weather. Itis an exact counterpart of the English Snipe, 
only about one-half smaller; it never utters any cry on 
rising, and rarely flies above one hundred yards, often 
dropping within fifty feet of the muzzle of a gun just 
discharged at it, although unwounded. The bird which 
is here confounded with it, is the PecroraL Sanpprrer, a 
bird about one-third smaller than the snipe, of a lighter 
brown, with a short, arched bill, and a feeble quavering- 
whistle. It is found indiscriminately on the sea-shore, 
and in upland marshes; I have shot it from Lake Huron 
to the Penobscot, and the Capes of the Delaware; it lies 
well before dogs, which will point it, and is a good bird 
on the table. It is known in Long Island as the “ Mea- 
dow Snipe,” and the “Short Neck” in New Jersey, and 
thence westward, as the “Fat Bird,” or “Jack Snipe,” 
indiscriminately. It is not a snipe at all, but a Sand- 
piper, Tringa Pectoralis. 
The only other true snipe ascertained to exist in Ame- 
rica, is the Rep-Breasrep Snirz, Scolopax Novebora- 
censis, better known as the “ Dowrrcuer,” an unmeaning 
name, adopted and persevered in bythe Baymen, or as 
the “ Quail Snipe.” At Egg Harbor the gunners call it 
the “Brown-back.” It is found only on the salt marshes, 
and is never hunted with dogs, but shot from ambush 
over decoys, 
