BROWN LONGBEAK. 
63 
the rest of his valuable collection of the Fauna of the 
British Islands, by the Trustees of the British Mu- 
seum, in which repository it now remains in excellent 
preservation. Montagu remarks, in his Ornitholo- 
gical Dictionary, that it was very tame, and suffered 
the person who killed it to approach very near, and 
that it was in poor condition. Wilson has given some 
account of its manners, which are somewhat different 
from those of the Snipes. It arrives on the sea-coast 
of New Jersey early in April, and is seldom seen 
inland : early in May it proceeds to the north to 
breed, and returns by the end of July or beginning 
of August : during its stay it flies in flocks, some- 
times very high, and has then a loud and shrill 
whistle. They sometimes settle in such numbers and 
so close together, that upwards of eighty have been 
shot at one discharge of the fowling-piece ! When 
they are flushed, they spring up with a loud whistle, 
and generally rise very high, making several cir- 
cuitous manoeuvres in the air before they descend. 
They frequent the mud-Hats at low-water in search 
of food, which consists of small molluscse : in the 
month of September they become very fat, and are 
said to be excellent food : shortly afterwards they 
leave the United States and retire southwards. 
