18 



SNIPE. 



SCOLOPAX GALLINAGO. 



[Plate XLVIL— Fig. 1.] 



THIS bird is well known to our sportsmen; and, if not the 

 same, has a very near resemblance to the common Snipe of Eu- 

 rope. It is usually known by the name of the English SnipCj to 

 distinguish it from the Woodcock, and from several others of the 

 same genus. It arrives in Pennsylvania about the tenth of March, 

 and remains in the low grounds for several weeks ; the greater part 

 then move off to the north and to the higher inland districts to 

 breed. A few are occasionally found and consequently breed in our 

 low marshes during the summer. When they first arrive they are 

 usually lean ; but when in good order are accounted excellent eat- 

 ing. They are perhaps the most difficult to shoot of all our birds, 

 as they fly in sudden zig-zag lines, and very rapidly. Great num- 

 bers of these birds winter on the rice grounds of the southern states, 

 where in the month of February they appeared to be much tamer 

 than they are usually here, as I frequently observed them running 

 about among the springs and watery thickets. I was told by the 

 inhabitants that they generally disappeared early in the spring. 

 On the twentieth of March I found these birds extremely numerous 

 on the borders of the ponds near Louisville, Kentucky; and also 

 in the neighbourhood of Lexington in the same state, as late as the 

 tenth of April. I was told by several people that they are abun- 

 dant in the Illinois country, up as far as lake Michigan. They are 

 but seldom seen in Pennsylvania during the summer, but are occa- 

 sionally met with in considerable numbers on their return in au- 

 tumn, along the whole eastern side of the Alleghany from the sea 

 to the mountains. They have the same soaring irregular flight in 



