RED-BREASTED SNIPE. AAS 
Scolopax leucophea, Viel. Gal. Ois. ii. p. 110, tab. 291, changing to 
the summer dress.—Scolopax grisea, Vietll. Nouv. Dict. winter dress.— 
Totanus griseus, Vieill. Nouv. Dict. winter dress.—Totanus ferrugineicollis, 
Vieill. summer dress.—Totanus noveboracensis, Sabine, Zool. App. Franklin’s 
Eap. p. 687, summer dress.—Macroramphus griseus, Leach, Cat. Mus. Brit. 
—Limosa scolopacea, Say, in Long’s Lxp. ii. p. 170, winter plumage.—Bec- 
caccia grigia, Ranz. Elem. iii. pt. viii. p. 162, sp. 5.—Becassine grise, Vieill. 
Nouv. Dict. iii. p. 358.—Becassine ponctuée, Temm. loc. cit.—Brown Snipe, 
Penn. Arct. Zool. ii. sp. 369.—Lath. Syn. v. p. 154, sp. 26; Id. Gen. Hist. 
ix, p. 216, sp. 25.—Mont. Orn. Dict. with a good fig. in the Suppl. winter 
dress. —Red-breasted Snipe, Penn. Arct. Zool. il. sp. 368.—Lath. Syn. v. p. 
153, sp. 26; Id. Gen. Hist. ix. p. 215, sp. 24, summer dress.—Graubraune 
Schnepfe, Meyer and Wolf, Tasch. iii. p. 46.—Philadelphia Museum. 
We can add nothing to the excellent account given by our 
predecessor of this remarkable species, but as he only figured 
it in its summer and more familiar dress, our representation 
of the winter plumage will not be thought superfluous upon 
referring to our elaborate synonymy, and still less if we bear 
in mind that even a distinct genus has been instituted for it 
in this vesture, when it chanced to come under more critical 
inspection. We shall therefore merely dwell upon the literary 
and systematical history of the species, referring the reader to 
Wilson for its natural one. 
In its winter plumage the adult red-breasted snipe, then 
called brown snipe, is so different from the young and from 
the perfect bird in summer dress, that it is no wonder that it 
should have been considered a distinct species, especially as it 
is the only snipe that undergoes such changes, and analogy 
could therefore no longer serve to guide us. While passing 
gradually from one plumage to another, the feathers assume 
so many appearances as to excuse in some degree even the 
errors of those who have been led to multiply the nominal 
species by taking a wrong view of the genus to which it 
belonged. 
Pennant, soon followed by Latham, was the first to make 
known our snipe, which they described in both vestures, and 
the bird was registered accordingly in the ill-digested com- 
pilation of Gmelin. Wilson perceived that the twe supposed 
species were one and the same, retaining for it the name of 
