best concentration areas may affect the total figures so heavily as to 
mask a more significant wide-spread trend, Therefore, a count was made 
of the total number of areas which showed an increase, the number that had 
a decrease, and the number that had less than a 25% change in either direc- 
tion, between 1953 and 195. The number of increases was 223 decreases, 2h; 
no change, 21. This, of course, is further evidence that no measurable 
change had taken place. 
Data from Christmas season counts.--Table 2 gives a five-year compari- 
son of snipe recorded on the annua istmas Bird Counts. Last year's 
table was based on 79 areas that were covered for six consecutive years 
and that reported snipe on one or more of these years. This year, by 
dropping the first two winters from the table, it has been possible to 
include 50 additional areas that were visited annually from 199-50 through 
1953-54. Coverage during the five-year period ranged from 5,556 party- 
hours in 1950-51 to 7,72 in 1953-5. Although this represents fifteen 
times as much effort as the winter snipe count, the Christmas count parti- 
cipants tally all species of birds and cover all habitats. Therefore, the 
mumber of snipe they record is much lower than the number observed on the 
winter snipe counts. The 67 comparable areas on the latter count had 
4,851 snipe in 1953 and 4,457 in 19543; whereas the Christmas Count totals 
were only 758 and 2,157 for the same two years, The high 195) tally was 
due to a concentration of 1,000 birds in one California area where they 
had not occurred in previous years. To keep this one area from having an 
undue influence on the grand total, a separate total has been given for 
Administrative Regions 2 through 5. 
A count was made of the number of areas reporting increases and 
decreases, similar to that made for the winter snipe count; for this 
comparison, 183 areas which reported in both 1952-53 and 1953-5) were 
used (instead of just the 129 areas for which a five-year series was 
available), Eighty-seven areas had an increase; 52, a decrease; and hh, 
no change of as much as 25%. 
In regions 2, 3, 4, and 5 the 1953-5 figures are close to the five- 
year average; and with the exception of Region 1 (distorted by the count 
of 1,000 snipe in one California area), there is no indication of any 
appreciable change in population. 
Trapping and Banding of Snipe.--Japanese mist nets were operated 
two nights along the Mobile Bay Causeway, one night at Foley, Ala., and 
one night (with the assistance of U. S. Game Management Agent Jacob Wolfley) 
at Lake Jessup in Seminole County, Fla. Eleven snipe were banded at Foley, 
20 at Lake Jessup, and 20 at Mobile. One of the 37 birds banded at Mobile 
the previous winter was also retrapped there. Up to the present time no 
recoveries have been received from the 135 snipe I have banded the past 
three years. I was told, however, that one of the birds banded at Lake 
Jessup in February 1953 had been shot there the following fall, but not 
reported to the banding office. : 
36 
