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Range (Eastern North America north)

Eastern North America north to Labrador and Manitoba, breeding nearly throughout its range, but not commonly in the southern part of it; winters from southern Illinois and Virginia southward. Washington, rather common from Feb. to Nov.; a few winter. Long Island, common S. R.; a few winter. Sing Sing, common S. R., Feb. 19 to Dec. 2. Cambridge, S. R., formerly common, fast becoming rare; Mch. to Nov. Nest, of a few dry leaves, on the ground in the woods. Eggs, four, buffy, distinctly and obscurely spotted with shades of rufous, 1.60 × 1.23. During the spring and early summer this Owl among Snipe haunts low, wooded bottom-lands; in August, while molting, it resorts to cornfields near woods, and in the fall migrating birds frequent wooded uplands. But at all times it requires a soft, moist earth in which it may easily probe with its long bill for its fare of earthworms. The holes it makes are known as "borings." They are generally found in little groups, and are, of course, certain evidence of the presence of Woodcock. It has recently been discovered by Mr. Gurdon Trumbull that the Woodcock can move the tip of its upper mandible independently of the lower one, and this organ is made to act as a finger to assist the bird in drawing its food from the ground.

The flight of the Woodcock is sometimes accompanied by a high, whistling sound produced by its narrow, stiffened primaries in beating the air. When flushed near its nest or young, the parent bird generally feigns lameness or a broken wing, and leads the intruder some distance from its treasures before taking wing.

The cloak of night always lends a certain mystery to the doings of nocturnal birds, and more often than not their habits justify our unusual interest in them. How many evenings have I tempted the malaria germs of Jersey lowlands to watch the Woodcock perform his strange sky dance! He begins on the ground with a formal, periodic peent, peent, an incongruous preparation for the wild rush that follows. It is repeated several times before he springs from the ground and on whistling wings sweeps out on the first loop of a spiral which may take him 300 feet from the ground. Faster and faster he goes, louder and shriller sounds his wing-song; then, after a moment's pause, with darting, headlong flight, he pitches in zigzags to the earth, uttering as he falls a clear, twittering whistle. He generally returns to near the SNIPES, SANDPIPERS, ETC. place from which he arose, and the peent is at once resumed as a preliminary to another round in the sky. The EUROPEAN WOODCOCK (227. Scolopax rusticola) bears a general resemblance to our Woodcock, but is much larger; the under parts are barred with black, the wings are barred with rufous, and the outer primaries are not emarginate. It is of accidental occurrence in eastern North America. 230. Gallinago delicata (Ord). WILSON'S SNIPE; ENGLISH SNIPE. Ad.-Upper parts black, barred, bordered, and mottled with different shades of cream-buff; wings fuscous; outer edge of outer primary and tips of greater coverts white; throat white; neck and breast ochraceous-buff, indistinctly streaked with blackish; belly white, sides barred with black; under tailcoverts buffy, barred with black; outer tail-feathers barred with black and white, inner ones black, barred with rufous at their ends and tipped with whitish. L., 11-25; W., 5.00; Tar., 1.20; B., 2.50.

Range.-North America, breeding from southern Minnesota, northern Illinois, northwestern Pennsylvania, and Connecticut northward to Hudson Bay and Labrador, and wintering from southern Illinois and South Carolina to northern South America.

Washington, common T. V., Mch. to May 5; fall; occasional in winter. Long Island, common T. V., Mch. and Apl.; Aug. to Oct. Sing Sing, tolerably common T. V., Mch. 20 to May 6; Oct. 6 to Nov. 20. Cambridge, common T. V., Apl. 5 to May 5; Sept. and Oct. Eggs, three to four, olive, clay-color, or brownish ashy, heavily marked with chocolate, principally at the larger end, 1.60 x 1.17. Wilson's Snipe frequents fresh-water meadows and swamps, and in spring is often found in low-lying swales in meadows or mowing fields, but, excepting in very dry seasons, it seldom alights on salt marshes. At times, especially in winter or early spring, when the meadows are covered with snow or ice, it resorts to springy runs wooded with alders, birches, and maples, but as a rule it prefers open places. Two things are essential to its requirements-ground so thoroughly water-soaked as to afford slight resistance to its long and highly sensitive bill when probing, and such concealment as tussocks, hillocks, or long grass afford, for, unlike the Sandpipers, the Snipe rarely ventures out on bare mud flats, save under cover of darkness. Although less strictly nocturnal than the Woodcock, it feeds and migrates chiefly by night or in "thick" weather. Its migratory movements are notoriously erratic, and meadows which one day are alive with birds may be quite deserted the next, or the reverse. Dear to our sportsmen is Wilson's Snipe, partly because of the excellence of its flesh, but chiefly from the fact that it furnishes a mark which taxes their skill to the utmost, and which no mere novice need hope to hit, unless by accident; for the bird's flight is swift and tortuous, and it springs from the grass as if thrown by a catapult, uttering SNIPES, SANDPIPERS, ETC. a succession of hoarse, rasping scaipes which have a peculiarly startling effect on inexperienced nerves. In the springtime-and occasionally in autumn also-Wilson's Snipe mounts to a considerable height above his favorite meadows and darts downward with great velocity, making at each descent a low yet penetrating, tremulous sound which suggests the winnowing of a domestic Pigeon's wings, or, if heard at a distance, the bleating of a goat, and which is thought to be produced by the rushing of the air through the wings of the Snipe. This performance may be sometimes witnessed in broad daylight when the weather is stormy, but ordinarily it is reserved for the morning and evening twilight and for moonlight nights, when it is often kept up for hours in succession.

Besides this "drumming" or "bleating," as it is called, the Snipe, while mating, sometimes makes another peculiar sound, a kük-kükkük-kük-kup, evidently vocal and occasionally accompanying a slow, labored, and perfectly direct flight, at the end of which the bird alights on a tree or fence post for a few moments. - WILLIAM BREWSTER. The EUROPEAN SNIPE (229. Gallinago gallinago) inhabits the northern parts of the Old World, is of frequent occurrence in Greenland, and accidental in the Bermudas. 231. Macrorhamphus griseus (Gmel.). DOWITCHER. (See Figs. 25, a, 26, c.) Ad. in summer. Upper parts, tertials, and wing-coverts black, the feathers edged or barred with ochraceous-buff or rufous; rump, upper tailcoverts, and tail barred with black and more or less ochraceous-buff; primaries fuscous; under parts dull, pale rufous, whitish on the belly, more or less spotted and barred with black. Ad. in winter.- Upper parts brownish gray; rump and tail barred with black and white; throat and breast washed with ashy, belly white, sides and under tail-coverts barred with black. Im.-Upper parts black, the feathers edged with rufous; rump and tail barred with black and white, and sometimes washed with rufous; secondaries widely edged with white; under parts more or less washed with ochraceous-buff and obscurely spotted with blackish. L., 10.50; W., 5-75; Tar., 1.30; B., 2-05-2.50.