Wilson's, or the English snipe, is a bird of fresh-water swamp and meadow, 

 in which it finds concealment among the grass or grassy tussocks. It is particu- 

 larly fond of places where the soil is boggy enough to permit probing with its 

 sensitive bill, for it finds much of its food beneath the surface in the shape of 

 succulent worms. Owing to the nature of its haunts and its secretive habits, the 

 snipe is familiar to but few outside the guild of sportsmen. Even nature lovers 

 know the bird chiefly by its sharp ''scaip, scaip," as it flushes suddenly from 

 among the grasses. So quickly does the snipe get under way that one is apt to 

 catch only a glimpse of a brown and black body as it cuts the air on powerful 

 wings with many a twist and turn. It is this peculiar flight that endears the snipe 

 to the sportsman, since a steady hand and a quick eye are needed to stop the bird 

 when bent on escaping from a dangerous neighborhood. Most States until re- 

 cently have pennitted spring snipe-shooting. The practice is held by many to be 

 the more excusable inasmuch as some States get little or no snipe-shooting in fall> 

 and to forego spring shooting means no snipe-shooting at all in such States. No 

 one, however, who has marked the steady decline in the number of snipe that 

 migrate across our territory can doubt that the continuance of spring shooting 

 means the extinction of this highly-prized game bird. 



Description. — Adult: Upper parts brownish black, freckled, mottled, barred^ 

 and streaked with ochraceous-bufif and Avhitish ; crown and back nearly pure black,, 

 the former divided by irregular buffy median line; the scapulars and inter- 

 scapulars bordered by whitish or cream-buff on outer margins only; wings 

 fuscous, the edge including outer web of first primary, white ; the greater coverts,, 

 secondaries, and sometimes inner primaries narrowly tipped with white ; a dark 

 line from eye to bill; throat whitish; sides of head and neck and breast 

 ochraceous-bufl:', finely spotted and streaked, or indistinctly barred with blackish ; 

 belly white, the axillars, sides and flanks strongly barred, — blackish and white; 

 both tail-coverts and exposed tip of tail strongly ochraceous-buff, or rufous, finely 

 barred with black; tail-feathers black basally, some of the lateral ones white or 

 white-tipped. Length, 10.00-12.00 (254-304.8); wing, 5.00 (127.); tail, 2.40 

 (61.) ; bill, 2,50 (63.5) ; tarsus, 1.25 (31.8). The female averages smaller than 

 the male. 



Recognition Marks. — Robin size; general mottled and streaked appearance; 

 long bill used as mud-probe ; marsh-skulking habits, and jack, jack notes on rising. 



Nesting. — Nest, on the ground. Eggs, 3 or 4, clay-color, olive, or ashy- 

 brown, spotted and blotched with reddish brown or umber. Average size, 1.58x 

 1.14 (40.1x29.). 



Whenever the word ''snipe'' is uttered we think most naturally of this recluse 

 of the inland fens, for he is the Snipe of America. Although possessing much 

 in common with the European Snipe (G. gallinago) and something with the 

 Woodcock, his ways are peculiar enough to make him distinctly known to every 

 sportsman. He is rather a disreputable looking fellow, a tatterdemalion in fact, 

 as he bursts out of his bog with an exultant cry of "escape, escape,'' and flutters 

 his rags in the wind. And as he pursues his devious way through the air, jerking 



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