RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 
339 
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 eel skin 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 reddish buff colour ; 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, 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 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. 
