WATER BIRDS. 179 
time. The male alone is supposed to indulge in this pastime, but I am not 
aware that this is anything better than an inference. 
The food is obtained largely by probing in the wet ground in the man- 
ner of the Woodcock, but apparently this species prefers wetter ground 
than the Woodcock, at all events the holes or “borings” are seldom visible, 
even in places where Snipe are breeding regularly. But the bird also 
eats large numbers of insects and other invertebrates for which it does not 
probe. In eleven stomachs of this species examined by Professor Aughey 
of Nebraska, there were found 678 insects, 412 of which were locusts (1st 
Rep. U. S. Entom. Com., App. 2, p. 51). 
Neither of the common names, English Snipe nor Jack Snipe, is strictly 
correct. The first is a com- 
plete misnomer, since our 
species is distinctly American; 
the other is applied with equal 
frequency to the Pectoral Sand- 
piper or Grass Snipe, which it 
slightly resembles. 
The nest is invariably placed 
AF 
(a, ZG 
= << EE eS 
ZZ 
“ZZ 
: Fig. 52. Wing of Wilson’s Snipe. 
on the ground, In wet places, Seen from below, showing barred axillaries. (Original.) 
and consists merely of a hollow 
among the herbage, only slightly lined with grasses and leaves. The eggs, 
usually four, are olive gray or olive brown, heavily spotted with deep 
brown and purplish gray and average 1.55 by 1.09 inches. 
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION. 
Top of head black, with a median stripe of buffy white, and a similar one from nostril 
over eye to nape; a dusky bar from bill to eye; chin white and unspotted in spring, buffy 
brown, more or less streaked, in autumn; neck all around, and upper breast, buffy brown, 
streaked with dark brown or black; upper parts brownish black or black, the scapulars 
and interscapulars edged with creamy white in spring, rufous in autumn, most of the back 
speckled or barred with rufous or buff; lower breast and belly white; sides and axillars 
narrowly barred with black and white; tail barred with black and rufous, tips of feathers 
often white. Sexes alike and seasonal changes not great, though the autumn dress is 
much redder or browner. Length 10 to 12 inches; wing 4.90 to 5.60; culmen 2.50 to 2.70. 
93. Red-breasted Snipe. Macrorhamphus griseus griseus (Gmel.). (231) 
Synonyms: Dowitcher (Deutscher), Brown-back, Grey Snipe, Gray-back.—Scolopax 
grisea, Gmel.,—Scolopax noveboracensis, Wils., Aud., and others. 
Known by its general resemblance to Wilson’s Snipe, but the lower 
back and rump white, mostly unspotted, and the under parts mainly 
cinnamon or buffy brown. 
Distribution.—Eastern North America, breeding far north; south in 
winter to the West Indies and Brazil. 
This is a bird of the shore, not of the bog; moreover it is usually found 
in flocks, running about in plain sight on the open mud or sand, in all 
which it is entirely unlike Wilson’s Snipe. 
This does not seem to be a common species in Michigan. Dr. Gibbs 
saw a small flock in Kalamazoo county, May 21, 1888; Major Boies says 
it is occasionally seen in Hillsdale and Lenawee counties, and that he 
observed a few in the spring on the shores of {the west side of Neebish 
Island (1892-1894). One was killed by J. Claire Wood on a mud flat 
