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together, remaining thus for a moment or two previous to scattering about in search of food ; and 

 it is therefore very easy to get a pot-shot into a flock and knock down quite a number — a mode 

 of proceeding much in vogue with the shore-gunners, who slaughter great numbers of this 

 beautiful bird. On the wing the Red-breasted Snipe is swift, and its flight is powerful and well 

 sustained ; but it seldom flies far when disturbed, and more frequently returns to the same place 

 after circling round once or twice. I have frequently shot these Snipe for the table, and found 

 them excellent eating, though scarcely as good as the common Snipe. The food of this bird 

 appears to consist chiefly of small insects, worms, &c. ; but occasionally a few seeds are found in 

 its crop. Dr. Richardson states that specimens obtained by him on the Saskatchewan had their 

 crops filled with leeches and fragments of coleoptera. 



I am indebted to Dr. Elliott Coues for the following notes respecting the present species : — 

 " I am not aware that breeding birds have ever been found in the United States (exclusive of 

 Alaska). Like the Sandpipers, between which and the true Snipes this species forms, with Micro- 

 palama Mmantopus, a connecting link, the Red-breasted Snipe has a highly boreal breeding-range, 

 of which we have only recently gained authentic advices. The nesting-resorts were only known in 

 a general way to the earlier authors, while the eggs remained, until very lately, unknown. There 

 are now, however, several sets in the Smithsonian collection, taken by Mr. R. Macfarlane in the 

 Anderson-river region, and along the Arctic coast itself, east of that river. These were procured 

 late in June, at which season they appear to have been fresh or nearly so ; we have thus the time 

 of laying very nearly. Accompanying labels state that the eggs were placed on a few dried leaves 

 in a slight depression of the ground, in or near marshy tracts. One set has four eggs, another 

 only two ; but we may presume that, as usual in this group, the former is the ordinary nest-com- 

 plement. The eggs are not peculiar in any respect ; and probably no description, however minute, 

 would suffice for their absolute discrimination from some of their allies. They are much as in 

 Gallinago, showing the same ground-colour with all its variability in tint, while the pictura is 

 identical, even to the sharp black tracery over the ordinary blotches. One specimen has the 

 markings rather chocolate than umber-brown, and smaller and more diffused than I find them to 

 be in any samples of Gallinago before me. An unusually long, narrow, and pointed specimen 

 measures 1-75 xlT5, a short one 1*55 xlTO; an average is about 1-62 XlT2. Mr. W. H. Dall 

 has left a record of nidification in Alaska, he having fouud a nest June 3rd, and secured the 

 parent with the eggs on the 6th. ' The nest was a simple hollow in the ground, in a grassy 

 " hummock," in the centre of a marshy spot, with scarcely any lining whatever — nothing in the 

 shape of a nest to bring away. The female, when startled from the nest, shuffled off with great 

 rapidity among the grassy hummocks, making a very difficult mark to shoot at.' 



"Although the breeding of this bird is highly boreal, as said, I should not be surprised if it 

 were yet found nesting on or near our northern border. Our Maine writers speak of the species 

 as a ' summer visitor ;' and Dr. Geo. Suckley refers to individuals supposed to be breeding in 

 Washington territory in May. In the autumn the earliest period at which I have myself seen 

 the bird in the United States was the first week in August, this was on the northern boundary 

 of Dakota; and the evident youth of the specimens secured led me to infer that they were 

 hatched not far off, if not, indeed, in the immediate vicinity. The full migration is not, 

 however, fully established until September, during which month untold thousands enter the 



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