RED-BREASTED SNIPE. H 



as that represented in my plate, and few, even of the younger birds, were 

 without some of the markings peculiar to the summer dress. Their numbers 

 were exceedingly great, and continued without diminution until we reached 

 Galveston Bay in Texas, on the 26th of the same month. How far they 

 proceed beyond that place to spend the winter I am unable to say; but their 

 range over North America is known to be very extensive, as they have been 

 found on the Columbia river on the western coast, on the borders of the 

 great northern lakes, and over the whole extent of the Fur Countries, from 

 the time of their appearance in spring until that of their return southward in 

 autumn. 



Although much more abundant along the coast, and in its vicinity, the 

 Red-breasted Snipe is not uncommon in many parts of the interior, especially 

 in autumn, and I have procured many individuals along the muddy margins 

 of lakes, more than three hundred miles in a direct line from the sea. Its 

 migratory movements are performed with uncommon celerity, as many are 

 observed along the coast of New Jersey early in April, and afterwards on 

 the borders of the arctic sea, in time to rear young, and return to our 

 Eastern and Middle Districts before the end of August. 



This bird exhibits at times a manner of feeding which appeared to me 

 singular, and which I repeatedly witnessed while at Grande Terre in 

 Louisiana. While watching their manner of walking and wading along 

 sand-bars and muddy flats, I saw that as long as the water was not deeper 

 than the length of their bills, they probed the ground beneath them precisely 

 in the manner of the American Snipe, Scolopax Wilsoni; but when the 

 water reached their bodies, they immersed the head and a portion of the 

 neck, and remained thus sufficiently long to satisfy me that, while in this 

 position, they probed several spots before raising their head to breathe. On 

 such grounds as are yet soft, although not covered with water, they bore 

 holes as deep as the soil will admit, and this with surprising rapidity, occu- 

 pying but a few moments in one spot, and probing as they advance. I have 

 watched some dozens at this work for half an hour at a time, when I was 

 completely concealed from their view. Godwits, which are also borers, 

 probe the mud or moist earth often in an oblique direction, whilst the 

 Woodcock, the Common Snipe, and the present species, thrust in their bills 

 perpendicularly. The latter bird also seizes many sorts of insects, and at 

 times small fry, as well as the seeds of plants that have dropped into the 

 water. Dr. Richardson informs us that "individuals killed on the Sas- 

 katchewan plains had the crops filled with leeches and fragments of coleop- 

 tera." 



The flight of this bird is rapid, strong, and remarkably well-sustained. 

 When rising in large numbers, which they usually do simultaneously, they 



