K;' i 
1 b 
RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 
winter plumage will not be thought superfluous upon referring to 
our elaborate synonymy, and still less if we bear in mind that 
even a distinct genus has been instituted for it in this vesture, 
when it chanced to come under more critical inspection. We 
shall therefore merely dwell upon the literary and systematical 
history of the species, referring the reader to Wilson for its 
natural one. 
In its winter plumage the adult Red-breasted Snipe, then called 
Brown Snipe, is so different from the young and from the perfect 
bird in summer dress, that it is no wonder that it should have 
been considered a distinct species, especially as it is the only 
Snipe that undergoes such changes, and analogy could therefore 
no longer serve to guide us. While passing gradually from one 
plumage to another, the feathers assume so many appearances as 
to excuse in some degree even the errors of those who have been 
led to multiply the nominal species by taking a wrong view of 
the genus to which it belonged. 
Pennant, soon followed by Latham, was the first to make known 
our Snipe, which they described in both vestures, and the bird was 
registered accordingly in the ill digested compilation of Gmelin. 
Wilson perceived that the two supposed species were one and the 
same, retaining for it the name of Scolopax noveboracensis, which 
appertained originally to the summer dress alone. That given 
to the winter dress is now however with more propriety adopted 
by all modern ornithologists. As some birds of the old continent 
are known occasionally to stray to the American shores,* so this 
common American bird visits accidentally the north of Europe, 
and especially its islands. There are several instances of its 
* The Tringa pugnax of Europe, we are informed by Mr. Cooper, who has compared 
the specimen with one of this species from Austria in analogous plumage, has been shot 
on Long Island in the State of New York. 
