WILSON’S SNIPE. 
343 
that he should not have mentioned the difference in the notes of the two 
species, which in fact is as great as that between those of the American 
Crow and the Carrion Crow of Europe. A decided difference of this kind 
I am always disposed to consider as satisfactory in the case of nearly allied 
species. While glancing over some of the numberless compilations that are 
pouring their muddy waters into the great stream of human knowledge, I 
was somewhat surprised to find in one of them an account of the American 
Snipe, in which it is stated that it is a winter visitant in the northern States, 
and will most probably breed farther south , without leaving the country ! 
The American Snipe is easily caught in snares placed on the spots of mud 
which it. is wont to probe, and a good number are thus obtained by the 
farmers’ children, especially during very cold weather, when, the birds 
having become emaciated from want of a good supply of food, they resort to 
the small warm springs of our meadows, and there remain until the return 
of milder weather. At such times and places, I have heard this bird utter 
various curious notes, which I am unable to describe, putting themselves 
into strange postures all the while, jerking their tails upwards, downwards, 
and sideways, for several seconds at a time, while the head and neck were 
moved backwards and forwards, as if the bird had been in a fit. I never 
saw this during warm weather, and am unable to account for it. 
It arrives in Pennsylvania from the south about the middle of March, 
earlier or later according to the nature of the season, a month later in Maine, 
and about a week or ten days after in Nova Scotia. We neither saw nor 
heard of any in Newfoundland or Labrador, but they are abundant in the 
interior of the northern parts of the Canadas. 
The young acquire the full plumage of the adult the first year after their 
birth, when no essential difference is perceptible between the sexes, the 
female being merely somewhat larger than the male. My friend Thomas 
MacCulloch, who has not unfrequently found this bird breeding, and from 
whom I have received many of its eggs, was unable to say whether both 
sexes incubate, although this is very probable, as the male is often seen with 
or near the female while she is sitting, excepting towards evening or in the 
early part of the morning, when he mounts into the air, as if for the purpose 
of congratulating her by his curious song. It often happens that before these 
birds depart in spring, many are already mated. The birds are then met 
with in meadows or on low grounds, and, by being on the spot before 
sunrise, you may see both mount high in the air in a spiral manner, now 
with continuous beats of the wings, now in short sailings, until more than a 
hundred yards high, when they whirl round each other with extreme 
velocity , and dance as it were to their own music ; for at this juncture, and 
during the space of five or six minutes, you hear rolling notes mingling 
