SPECIES 3. SCOLOPJiX GALLINAGO: 
SNIPE. 
[Plate XLVIL— Fig. 1.] 
This bird is well known to our sportsmen; and, if not the 
same, has a very near resemblance of the common Snipe of Eu- 
rope. It is usually known by the name of the English Snipe, 
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 in- 
land districts to breed. A few are occasionally found, and con- 
sequently breed, in our low marshes during the summer. When 
they first arrive, they are usually lean; but when in good order 
are accounted excellent eating. They are, perhaps, the most 
difficult to shoot of all our birds, as they fly in sudden zig-zag 
lines, and very rapidly. Great numbers of these birds winter 
in the rice grounds of the southern states, where, in the month 
of February, they appeared to be much tamer than they are usu- 
ally 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 
* In consequence of Wilson’s doubts, whether this bird was the S. Galhnago 
or not, he gave no synonymes. The Prince of Musignano, convinced that it was 
a distinct species, adopted for it the name of Brehmii, under the impression that 
it was identical with the Snipe lately discovered in Germany, and described un- 
der the above mentioned name. It appears to be neither the Gallimgo not the 
Brehmii, but a bird peculiar to our country: In Mr. Ord’s supplement to Wilson’s 
Ornithology, it is classed under the name of Scoloj)ax delicata. 
