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SPECIES 3. SCOLOPdX GdLLINPGO.*
                           SNIPE.
                  [Plate XLVII.-Fig. 1.]
  THIS bird is well known to our sportsmen; and, if not the
same, has a very near resemblance of the common Snipe of Eu-
rope. It is usually known by the name of the English Snipe,
to distinguish it from the Woodcock, and from several others of
the same genus. It arrives in Pennsylvania about the tenth of
March, and remains in the low grounds for several weeks; the
greater part then move off to the north, and to the higher in-
land districts to breed. A few are occasionally found, and con-
sequently breed, in our low marshes during the summer. When
they first arrive, they are usually lean; but when in good order
are accounted excellent eating. They are, perhaps, the most
difficult to shoot of all our birds, as they fly in sudden zig-zag
lines, and very rapidly. Great numbers of these birds winter
in the rice grounds of the southern states, where, in the month
of February, they appeared to be much tamer than they are usu-
ally here, as I frequently observed them running about among
the springs and watery thickets. I was told by the inhabitants,
that they generally disappeared early in the spring. On the
twentieth of March I found these birds extremely numerous on
the borders of the ponds near Louisville, Kentucky; and also
in the neighbourhood of Lexington in the same state, as late as
    In consequence of Wilson's doubts, whether this bird was the S. Gallmnago
 or not, he gave no synonymes. The Prince of Musignano, convinced that it
was
 a distinct species, adopted for it the name of Brehmii, under the impression
that
 it was identical with the Snipe lately discovered in Germany, and described
un-
 V6er the above mentioned name. It appears to be neither the Gallinago nor
the
 Brelhmii, but a bird peculiar to our country: In Mr. Ord's supplement to
Wilson's
 Ornithology, it is classed under the name of Scolopax delicate.