Gallinago wilsoni. 
1890, llaine 
Oct. 8^L_. Umbagog. —■ A steady rain which began yesterday P.M. con¬ 
tinued through the night changing to snow towards morning. At 
7 A.M. the ground was covered to the depth of about of two inches 
Snow continued falling during the entire forenoon but the amount 
on the ground did not increase as it melted as fast as, or faster 
than, it fell 
There weie no Snipe on the meadows which were everywhere covered 
with snow but we found about 40 in Leonard's Pond. Their behaviour 
was remarkable. When first started they rose fully 200 yds, - 
ahead of my boat in two flocks one of which contained at Least 
thirty birds, After we had followed them about for an hour or two 
and fired a few shotsmat them they scattered some "what but during 
k- 1 ' 1 '“o 4 ^'*4 ‘ .^ 1, 
the en4-ira-e day they kept more or loss in flocks and cont-inued ex- 
g.6 e-di ng 1 y shy, usually rising out of gun range and, after flying 
about for some time at a great height ( pitching down to the shores 
of the pond again. When in flocks they acted exactly like 
Tringae flying in close bunches and alighting all together . 
During the entire forenoon they fed in the busiest and most un¬ 
constrained manner on the bare mud along the water's edge, I re¬ 
peatedly saw a dozen or more thus engaged on a space of only a few 
yards square and more than once cou.d have killed half the number 
at one shot so closely did the* huddle together. On one occasion 
% 
I saw faictr crowding about a little pocket-shaped mud holeprobing 
<5> 
their heads actually touching at times . Occasionally one would 
