24 NORTH AMERICAN SHOREBIRDS. 



Winter range. — During the winter season some Wilson snipe leave 

 the United States and pass even to northern South America, on the 

 east side to Rio Janeiro (Pelzeln) and on the west to Medellin, Colom- 

 bia (Sclater and Salvin). A few winter in the Lesser Antilles and 

 many in Jamaica, Cuba, and the Bahamas. The species is common 

 in Mexico and Guatemala, less common in the remainder of Central 

 America. A large part of the species winters in the southern United 

 States, where it was formerly enormously abundant. No exact 

 limit can be given to the northern range in winter. The Wilson 

 snipe can not live where the ground is frozen. Hence the normal 

 northern winter limit would extend from North Carolina through 

 Arkansas to New Mexico and on the Pacific slope to northern Cali- 

 fornia. But many snipe pass the winter much north of the zone of 

 frozen ground, feeding about streams or springs. A few can be found 

 almost every winter on Cape Cod, Massachusetts (Mackay), and a pair 

 were seen during January and February, 1896, as far north even as 

 W^olfville, Nova Scotia (Tufts) . From the Mississippi Valley snipe 

 are reported as wintering north to northern Illinois and northern 

 Nebraska (Bruner, Wolcott, and Swenk), while in the Rocky Moun- 

 tains of Colorado at 8,000 feet near Sweetwater Lake, the presence 

 of warm springs has enabled them to remain the entire winter, 

 though the air temperature fell to — 30° F. (Gilmore). They have 

 been known also to winter in northern Montana (Coubeaux) and 

 northern Washington (Snyder). A few snipe appear almost every 

 fall in the Bermuda Islands (Jardine) and sometimes remain through 

 the winter, though usually they are rare in spring. 



Spring migration. — A series of nearly twenty years of observations 

 near Alexandria, Va., gives the average date of arrival as March 8, 

 with the earliest February 17, 1897 (Greenwood); the species is 

 most common the last week in March. The average date of arrival 

 in central New Jersey is March 22, earliest March 4, 1877. Some 

 other dates of arrival are: Central Connecticut, average March 23, 

 earliest March 18, 1894; eastern Massachusetts, average April 2, 

 earliest March 21, 1887; southwestern Maine, average April 27, 

 earliest April 14, 1897; Scotch Lake, New Brunswick, earliest April 

 5, 1907 (Moore); Pictou, Nova Scotia, average April 19, earliest 

 April 11, 1889 (Mackinlay); city of Quebec, average April 23, 

 earliest April 18, 1899 (Dionne). 



The movements in the Mississippi Valley are at closely corre- 

 sponding dates: Central Missouri, average date of arrival March 13, 

 earliest February 17, 1897; Oberlin, Ohio, average March 28, earliest 

 March 19, 1897 (Jones); Chicago, 111., average April 3, earliest 

 March 17, 1894 (Blackwelder) ; southern Michigan, average April 3, 

 earliest March 21, 1893; southern Ontario, average April 15, earliest 

 April 1, 1900; Ottawa, Ontario, average April 26, earliest April 12, 1902 



