Todd : Birds of Erie and Presque Isle. 537 



and if such be overrun with goldenrod it is all the more apt to prove a 

 favorite haunt. In such a spot, during the migration, a dozen birds 

 may be killed, apparently depopulating the place, and yet the next 

 day there may be as many birds as ever, the result of an influx 

 during the intervening night. In large tracts of second-growth there 

 are often found particular spots, seemingly no better for Woodcock 

 than a hundred other similar places, where the birds will be found 

 with certainty day after day, unless, indeed, the ground be flooded." 



59. Gallinago delicata. Wilson's Snipe. 



Common as a transient visitant, and rare as a summer resident. 

 According to Dr. Warren {Birds of Pennsylvania, 1890, 81)," Mr. 

 Samuel Thompson, of Erie city, reports having discovered a nest and 

 four eggs in June, 1889, in a swamp near the Erie county poor-house," 

 while Mr. Bacon also records it (on the authority of Mr. George C. 

 Russell) as nesting elsewhere in the county, outside the limits of the 

 present paper, however. This observer writes as follows of his exten- 

 sive experience with the present species : "The county in general, 

 and the lake shore plain in particular, contain much excellent snipe 

 ground in the spring, but in the fall the fields are seldom flooded, and 

 being very grassy, do not furnish inducements for the birds to alight. 

 The Peninsula on the contrary is better ground in the fall than at the 

 other season, as the close of winter finds the edges of the ponds so bare 

 that there is no cover for even a snipe. From my notes on the migra- 

 tion of this species, covering over ten years, I find that the date of its 

 arrival on an average falls in the last week of March, March 13 (1903) 

 being the earliest and April 10 (1896) the latest date respectively. 

 The bulk of the birds pass through in April, and not a few linger into 

 the following month for a week or more, or until May 7 (1892 and 

 1898) to May 17 (1894). Its return in the fall is seldom delayed 

 beyond the last week in August, my earliest record being August 18 

 (1896) and my latest September 15 (1899), while it lingers as a rule 

 until the first week in November, the records ranging between October 

 19 (1898) and November 21 (1899). A curious partial albino [now 

 in the Carnegie Museum] was shot May 7, 1892." According to our 

 observations in 1900 this bird is by no means so numerous on the 

 Peninsula as the local conditions would seem to warrant. Single 

 individuals were met with as a rule, more rarely small flocks or 

 "wisps," always on the edge of the ponds, from April 20 to May 10 



