
the highways were, for the most part, unsuitable for snipe; the vegetation 
was too dense. 
In southern Fukon,snipe habitat is very much restricted. Most of the 
lakes have steep banks and little emergent vegetation. Snipe were found 
to be very local, and were not common anywhere. 
Although I did not go to Churchill, Manitoba, correspondence from two 
other parties who were in that area in the summer of 195], indicates that 
the Wilson's Snipe is a much commoner nesting bird there, and at other 
points along the railroad from Hudson Bay, Sask., to Churchill, than any- 
where in the boreal forest or prairie country that I had visited. On June 
23, Theodore R. Hake recorded no less than 2) winnowing birds from 5 to 11 
miles south of Churchill along the Canadian National Railroad. Three others 
were heard over the townsite four days later. C. K, Schoenbauer and J.H. 
Criswell, who were at Churchill from June 16 to June 28, reported hearing 
winnowing snipe at the tow of Hudson Bay as well as at Churchill but they 
did not keep records on all of their observations. Previous observations 
on file from northern Manitoba also show consistently high counts of snipe. 
Except for the observations from the forest-tundra transition area 
in the vicinity of Churchill, Manitoba, no snipe concentrations have been 
recorded in western Canada comparable with those in eastern New Brunswick, 
Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland. Only 8 of the 23 winnowing counts 
from western Canada (Fig.l) yielded any snipe at all. The maximum number 
per route was 8 and the mean of those that included one or more birds was 
about h. By way of comparison, the average number of snipe recorded on 
3 comparable routes in the vicinity of Sackville, New Brunswick in 1953, 
was 19 (Jolicure-Aulac), 16 (Cookville), and 20 (Midgic). Since all 
counts were made personally and since average weather conditions were 
comparable, the only important difference is in dates of coverage (May 28 
to June 16 in New Brunswick; July 3 to July 28 in western Canada). Un- 
fortunately, there are insufficient data at hand to determine: (1) the 
normal difference in nesting dates between New Brunswick and the various 
parts of western Canada that were included in these investigations; (2) 
the amount of delay in the 195) nesting season as result of unseasonably 
cold weather; and (3) the extent to which renesting may have been at- 
tempted as result of flooding. The repetition of counts in some of the 
same areas at the height of the winnowing period in two or three subsequent 
years would make possible a still better comparison between the snipe 
populations in the Prairie Provinces and those in the Maritimes. 
It appears likely, then, that the important snipe breeding areas of 
western Canada are in the forest-tundra transition area in northern 
Manitoba, northeastern Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories rather 
than in the prairie, parklands or boreal forest zones. If this is later 
substantiated, then the primary factors controlling the greater part of 
the ‘snipe reproduction in western Canada would be weather conditions 
and natural predation. Drainage and other human activities, although 
they may have been responsible for reducing the breeding population of 
Snipe in the Prairie Provinces in years past would not at the present 
time present any appreciable threat toward further depleting the 
population. 
5h 
