. Ornithology and oy of New England: containing full descriptions of the birds of New England, and adjoining states and provinces .. . irst week in May, the female lays three orfour eggs. These are more pyriform in shape than the pre-ceding, and average about by inch in color is an olivaceous-drab, marked with spots ofbrown, which are, at the greater end, confluent into blotches,which almost entirely hide the ground-color. The Snipe has been known to breed in Massachusetts;but the occurrence is very rare, and can be regarded onlyas accidental. By the 25th of August,
. Ornithology and oy of New England: containing full descriptions of the birds of New England, and adjoining states and provinces .. . irst week in May, the female lays three orfour eggs. These are more pyriform in shape than the pre-ceding, and average about by inch in color is an olivaceous-drab, marked with spots ofbrown, which are, at the greater end, confluent into blotches,which almost entirely hide the ground-color. The Snipe has been known to breed in Massachusetts;but the occurrence is very rare, and can be regarded onlyas accidental. By the 25th of August, it returns to themeadows of New England in small parties of three or four;but it is not abundant much before the 10th or 15tli of Sep-tember, and then is not found in great numbers, unlesswe have had two or three sharp frosts. The time whensportsmen most expect to find them in numbers is after anorth-easterly storm, when the wind veers around to thesouth-westward. Then the meadows are hunted diligently,and generally with success. I have bagged twenty-fourbirds in an afternoons shooting, within ten miles of Boston, 1^ plillllltl,. Wilsons snipe. ~ 431 and have known that number to be exceeded in favorableweather. The Snipe lies close to the ground when ap-proached ; and, being a bird of strong scent, as the expres-sion is, is winded to a considerable distance by a good is easy to imagine the excitement the sportsman experi-ences, when, with a good dog, he enters a large meadow,and sees him suddenly come to a point; when, walking upto the Snipe, and flushing it, the report of his gun, as heshoots the bird, startles from their lurking-places perhapsa dozen others, who fly but a short distance, uttering theirpeculiar squeak or scaip, and then alight in the grass, prom-ising him an abundance of shooting for the day. The Snipe, when first flushed, rapidly doubles and twistsin a quick, zigzag flight, which it continues for several rods,when it takes a more direct course, almost
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