RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 
11 
as that represented in my plate, and few, even of the younger birds, were 
without some of the markings peculiar to the summer dress. Their numbers 
were exceedingly great, and continued without diminution until we reached 
Galveston Bay in Texas, on the 28th of the same month. IIow far they 
proceed beyond that place to spend the winter I am unable to say ; but then- 
range over North America is known to be very extensive, as they have been 
found on the Columbia river on the western coast, on the borders of the 
great northern lakes, and over the whole extent of the Fur Countries, from 
the time of their appearancerin spring until that of their return southward in 
autumn. 
Although much more abundant along the coast, and in its vicinity, the 
Red-breasted Snipe is not uncommon in many parts of the interior, especially 
in autumn, and I have procured many individuals along the muddy margins 
of lakes, more than three hundred miles in a direct line from the sea. Its 
migratory movements are performed with uncommon celerity, as many are 
observed along the coast of New Jersey early in April, and afterwards on 
the borders of the arctic sea, in time to rear young, and return to our 
Eastern and Middle Districts before the end of August. 
This bird exhibits at times a manner of feeding which appeared to me 
singular, and which I repeatedly -witnessed while at Grande Terre in 
Louisiana. While watching their manner of walking and wading along 
sand-bars and muddy flats, I saw that as long as the water was not deeper 
than the length of their bills, they probed the ground beneath them precisely 
in the manner of the American Snipe, Scolopax Wilsoni ; but when the 
water reached their bodies, they immersed the head and a portion of the 
neck, and remained thus sufficiently long to satisfy me that, while in this 
position, they probed several spots before raising their head to breathe. On 
such grounds as are yet soft, although not covered with water, they bore 
holes as deep as the soil will admit, and this with surprising rapidity, occu- 
pying but a few moments in one spot, and probing as they advance. I have 
watched some dozens at this work for half an hour at a time, -when I was 
completely concealed from their view. Godwits, which are also borers, 
probe the mud or moist earth often in an oblique direction, whilst the 
Woodcock, the Common Snipe, and the present species, thrust in their bills 
perpendicularly. The latter bird also seizes many sorts of insects, and at 
times small fry, as well as the seeds of. plants that have dropped into the 
water. Dr. Richardson informs us that “individuals killed on the Sas- 
katchewan plains had the crops filled with leeches and fragments of coleop- 
tera.” 
The flight of this bird is rapid, strong, and remarkably well-sustained. 
When rising in large numbers, which they usually do simultaneously, they 
