
persists throughout most of the vast breeding area of that land mass, 
to the palest of all populations in eastern Siberia. On the Faeroe 
Islands north of the British Isles a reddish brown variant is the 
average type. In northern North America the darkest end most blackish 
populations of the entire species prevail from Newfoundland to Alaska. 
Even in western Alaska directly across Bering Strait from the pale 
Siberian population, the snipe, although slightly paler than those 
farther east, are dark and: have the broad black bands on the axillars 
characteristic of American birds. 
A variation which appears not to have been reported hitherto is 
that characteristic of the breeding birds of the arid western sections 
of the United States and southwestern Canada. Representatives of this 
population are as pale as the average Eurasian specimen and can be dis- 
tinguished from the main Old World population only by the broad black 
barring of the axillars. In this latter respect they are like other 
New World representatives. Compared with snipe from northern Canada 
they are distinctly paler and more buffy. 
Work is continuing on analysis and delineation of breeding areas 
of these variant types. iwhether this can be done precisely enough to 
be of material value in identifying breeding populations represented 
by migrant birds in hunters! bags remains to be seen. 
Observations of rails this past year seem to have been largely 
connected with the effects of hurricanes and attendant high tides on 
the reproduction of Clapper Rails on the Atlantic coast. (See 
MacNamara, L. Ge, New Jersey Outdoors, 6(3):h-7, Sept. 1955.). 
Allen Ge Smith (in lit.) was unable to repeat his interesting 
population studies of the Sora on the scale of former years which have 
been reported in this publication. Checks made on one area in Alberta, 
indicated a further decline from 27.5 rails per square mile in 195) to 
13 per square mile in 1955, even though the number of ponds increased 
from 54 to 57 per square mile in the same area during this period. 
It is hoped tnis interesting study can be continued on a larger scale 
in future years. 
Exceedingly important investigations of woodcock banding techniques 
are being conducted by William Sheldon and his students at the 
Massachusetts Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit. His recent findings 
that woodcock netted at their summer crepuscular concentration areas 
are probably mostly the same birds that breed in the general region is 
of great importance to the future of breeding ground banding. It means 
that representatives of the breeding population can be banded in much 
greater numbers than in the past. Also it means that females and young 
of the year can be banded in addition to adult males which comprise most 
of the sample taken by the singing ground method of trapping. 
