356 GAME BIRVS OF CALIFOSNIA 



two sets from the eastern United States recorded by Cooke (1910, 

 p. 25), were all taken on April 24 of different years, this being the 

 earliest date. Belding's record (1890, p. 267) of young barely able 

 to fly by the first of August, and the above eases recorded by Bryant, 

 would indicate that nesting in the Sierras proceeds until August. 

 However, the contention of game conservationists that the Wilson 

 Snipe is an early nester is borne out by the majority of the recorded 

 nesting dates, taking the whole of the United States into account. 



The nest is usually placed in a moist meadow in or at the side of 

 a tuft of grass, and is a mere depression lined with a few grass blades. 

 The nest at Tejon Pass was situated in a swampy area and was placed 

 on a tussock of grass about one foot in diameter and two in height. 

 It was " . . . ' simply a few fine grasses, probably pulled from the stems 

 directly beside the nest, as several bare stalks were noticed' " (J. 

 Mailliard, loe. eit.). This set consisted of four eggs. The ground 

 color was clayey-olive with a faint greenish tinge; the superficial 

 markings were of deep sepia, the deepest ones of varying tints of 

 gray; the markings consist of spots, roundish, sometimes elongate, in 

 the aggregate showing a distinctly spiral trend, and the largest being 

 0.20 inch in diameter, but usually smaller, 0.08-0.12 inch. 



During the breeding season the Wilson Snipe behaves quite differ- 

 ently than at other times of the year. Adults, probably males, are 

 to be seen perched on fences, stumps or even in the more open parts 

 of trees, a habit prevalent among certain other shore birds. G-rinnell 

 (1900, p. 22) thus describes the nuptial flight, as observed in the 

 Kowak Valley, Alaska : 



I wa3 in a broad, grassy swale studded here and there with scrub spruces 

 and bordered by taller timber, when my attention was attracted by a curious 

 far-off song which puzzled me for some time. Finally I descried the pro- 

 ducer, a Wilson's Snipe, so far overhead as to be scarcely discernible against 

 the clear sky. It was flying slowly in a broad circle with a diameter of 

 perhaps 600 yards, so that the direction of the sound was ever shifting, thus 

 confusing me until I caught sight of its author. This lofty flight was not 

 continuously on the same level, but consisted of a series of lengthy undulations 

 or swoops. At the end of each swoop the bird would mount up to its former 

 level. The drop at the beginning of the downward dive was with partly 

 closed, quivering wings, but the succeeding rise was accomplished by a suc- 

 cession of rapid wing-beats. The peculiar resonant song was a rolling series 

 of syllables uttered during the downward swoop; and just before this drop 

 merged into the following rise, a rumbling or whirring sound became audible, 

 accompanying the latter part of the song and finishing it. This curious song- 

 flight was kept up for fifteen minutes, ending with a downward dash. But 

 before the bird reached the ground, and was yet some twenty, yards above it, 

 there was apparently a complete collapse. The bird dropped, as if shot, for 

 several feet, but abruptly recovered itself to fly a short distance further and 

 repeat this new manoeuvre. By a succession of these collapses, falls, recoveries 

 and short flights, the acrobatically-inclined bird finally reached the ground. 



