RED-BEEASTED SNIPE. 
113 
I have frequently amused myself with the various action of 
these birds. They fly very rapidly, sometimes wheeling, coursing 
and doubling along the surface of the marshes; then shooting 
high in air, there separating; and forming in various bodies, 
uttering a kind of quivering whistle. Among many which I 
opened in May, were several females, that had very little ru- 
fous 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 colour 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 red- 
dish buflr colour; sides white, barred with black; belly and vent 
white, the latter barred wuth 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 seconda- 
ries centred 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 
*See his Brown Snipe, Arct. Zool. No. 369. 
VOL. III. — Q 
