RED-BREASTED SNIPE. ASI 
is two and a half inches long, composed of twelve feathers, 
all full and rounded, the two middle a little longer, and 
marked like the coverts already described, that is, white and 
densely fasciated with black bands. The feet are of a dull 
green : naked space on the tibia one inch long: tarsus nearly 
one inch and a half: middle toe without the nail hardly an 
inch: hind toe more than a quarter: the toes webbed at base, 
the outer web reaching to the first joint of the outer toes, the 
inner being hardly visible. 
Wilson’s description of the summer plumage being suffi- 
cient, we omit it here, though admitting of much more detail. 
In few words it may be stated, that however great the apparent 
difference, it may be reduced to this: 1. All those parts that 
are plain cinereous in winter take on a mottled appearance, 
being strongly tinged with reddish, and varied with black and 
yellowish. 2. The anterior parts that are white, such as the 
superciliar line, and breast, become reddish. The strongly 
characteristic marks of the other parts remain unchanged. 
The young birds of the year have the plumage above gene- 
rally black, the back of the head dusky, and the feathers 
broadly margined with bright rufous; the superciliar line 
and the inferior parts are of a dingy white, inclining to 
rufous; this colour predominates on the breast, where the 
feathers, as well as on the flanks and the superciliar line, 
have numerous dusky dots: the middle tail-feathers are 
terminated by reddish. 
Notwithstanding the statements of Wilson, we do not per- 
ceive any difference in plumage in the female, which is 
merely of a larger size. As the species breeds in hich 
northern latitudes, visiting the temperate regions of America 
in spring and autumn, on its passage to and from its winter 
quarters, it is the more extraordinary that it should not equally 
extend these regular migrations to Europe. 
