ZOOLOGY. 
237 
I never observed but two red pbalaropes in Washington Territory, and those late in November 
appeared during a storm in Shoalwater bay, where they swam in the surf near shore picking 
at small Crustacea washed out of the sand. They seemed much more aquatic in their habits 
than the preceding, and I am inclined to think that the birds seen in large flocks off the coasts 
of California and Mexico in winter are of this species.—C. 
Family SCO LOP ACID AE .—The Snipes. 
Sub-Family SCOLOPACINAE.—Short-1 egged Snipe. 
GALLINAGO WILSONII, (Temm.) Bon. 
Wilson’s Snipe; English Snipe. 
Scolopax wilsonii, Temm. PI. Col. V, livraison lxviii, about 1824. la text of Scolopax gigantea. — Bon. Syn. 1828, 330.— 
Swains. F. B. Am. II, 1831, 40 L.— Nutt. Man. II, 185.— Aud. Orn. Biog. Ill, 1835,322: Y. 1839, 
583 ; pi. 243.— Ib. Syn. 248 — Ib. Birds Amer. V, 1842, 339; pi. 350. 
Gallinago wilsonii, Bonap. List, 1838.— Baird & Cassin, Gen. Rep. Birds, 710. 
Scolopax gallinago, Wils, Am. Orn. YI, 1812, 18. Not of Linnaeus. 
Scolopax ddicata, Ord, ed. Wils. IX, 1825, 218. 
? Scolopax drummondii, Sw. F. Bor. Am. II, 1831,400.— Add. Orn. Biog. V, 1839,319.— Ib. Syn. 249.— Ib. Birds Amer. V. 
? Scolopax douglassii, Sw. F. Bor. Am. II, 1831,400. 
? Scolopax leucurus, Sw. F. Bor. Am. II, 1831,50. 
Sp. Ch.—B ill long, compressed, flattened and slightly expanded towards the tip, pustulated in its terminal half; wings 
rather long; legs moderate; tail short Entire upper parts brownish black ; every feather spotted and widely edged with ligh 
rufous, yellowish brown or ashy white; back and rump transversely barred and spotted with the same; a line from the base oi 
the bill over the top of the head. Throat and neck before, dull reddish ashy ; wing feather marked with dull brownish black ; 
other under parts white, with transverse bars of brownish black on the sides, axillary feathers and under wing coverts and under 
tail coverts; quills brownish black; outer edge of first primary white; tail glossy brownish black, widely tipped with bright 
rufous, paler at the tip, and with a subterminal narrow band of black; outer feathers of tail paler, frequently nearly white and 
barred with black throughout their length. Bill brown, yellowish at base and darker towards the end ; legs dark brown. 
Male: length, 10 to 10.50; extent, 16. Female: length, 11; extent, 17 inches; wing, 5; tail, 2^; bill, 2£; tarsus, 1J inch. 
Feet pale greenish gray. 
Hib .—~Entire temperate regions of North America. California, (Mr. Szabo ) 
Wilson’s snipe is generally distributed throughout all such portions of Oregon and Washington 
where nature has provided them with suitable abiding places. Many remain in the vicinity of 
Puget Sound throughout the winter, unless it be unusually cold. This is not surprising when 
we consider the mild open character of the winter of the coast region of those Territories, 
which, unlike the hard, cold season of places on the Atlantic coast of the same northern latitude, 
is what might be properly termed a rainy season. 
Further in the interior they are found, and a few winter near Fort Dalles, on the Columbia. 
In that vicinity I found several individuals on a cold day in the winter of 1854- 55 who had 
retreated from their ordinary haunts—owing to the frozen condition of the surface of the ground 
and a slight fall of snow—and were then busy close to the edge of an open running brook, 
running along the line where the snow had been melted by the ripples of the water, and feeding 
and acting at the time much like sandpipers—having been thus driven by sheer necessity to an 
almost complete abandonment of their ordinary habits. It is probable that had the change in 
the weather been less sudden, these birds would have migrated further south ; but as it was, 
they were taken • unawares, and reduced to great straits by cold and starvation. In habits, 
