332 
RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 
females, that had very little rufous below, and the backs were also much 
lighter, and less marbled with ferruginous. The eggs contained in their 
ovaries were some of them as large as garden peas. Their stomachs 
contained masses of those small snail shells that lie in millions on the 
salt marshes : the wrinkles at the base of the bill, and the red breast, 
are strong characters of this species, as also the membrane which unites 
the outer and middle toes together. 
The Red-breasted Snipe is ten inches and a half long, and eighteen 
inches in extent; the bill is about two inches and a quarter in length, 
straight, grooved, black towards the point, and of a dirty eelskin color 
at the base, where it is tumid and wrinkled ; lores dusky ; cheeks and 
eyebrows pale yellowish white, mottled with specks of black ; throat and 
breast a reddish buff color ; sides white, barred with black ; belly and 
vent white, the latter barred with dusky ; crown, neck above, back, 
scapulars and tertials, black, edged, mottled and marbled with yellowish 
white, pale and bright ferruginous, much in the same manner as the 
common Snipe ; wings plain olive, the secondaries centered and bordered 
with white ; shaft of the first quill very white ; rump, tail-coverts and 
tail (which consists of twelve feathers) white, thickly spotted with black ; 
legs and feet dull yellowish green ; outer toe united to the middle one 
by a small membrane ; eye very dark. The female, which is paler on 
the back, and less ruddy on the breast, has been described by Mr. 
Pennant as a separate species.* 
These birds doubtless breed not far to the northward of the United 
States, if we may judge from the lateness of the season when they leave 
us in spring ; the largeness of the eggs in the ovaries of the females 
before they depart, and the short period of time they are absent. Of 
all our sea-side Snipes it is the most numerous, and the most delicious 
for the table. 
From these circumstances and the crowded manner in which it flies 
and settles, it is the most eagerly sought after by our gunners, who 
send them to market in great numbers. 
* See his Brown Snipe, Arct. Zool. No. 369. 
