SNIPE, certain limicoline birds of the fam ily Scolopacidee. As explained in the article Sandpiper (q.v.) the names snipe and sandpiper are, to a large extent, used interchangeably, many of the species, more properly designated as sandpipers, having also one or more local names of which snipe forms a part. Besides the woodcock (q.v.), which is closely related, four species properly known as snipes occur in North America. All of these, together with numerous species inhabiting other parts of the world, have the bill very long, much exceeding the head, grooved for its entire length, some what flexible, flattened and expanded at the end and there richly provided with nerves and sense-organs. Because of these peculiarities these birds are enabled to employ the bill at once as a delicate, sensitive probe for exploring the mud deeply, and as a forceps for extracting worms and similar articles of diet which they there detect. The slit of the mouth is almost totally confined to the bill; the nostrils are rather large and placed very far back, almost above the eyes and not directly in front of them as in most birds. The typical snipes belong to the genus Gallinago. Besides exhibiting the characters just enumerated in a high degree of development, this genus has the toes entirely without webbing, the tarsi short, less than the middle toe, the body full and plump, the wings short and rounded, the tail feathers numerous, variable in the different species and cross barred. There is no noticeable difference in the plumage with season or sex. About 20 species are known, the majority from Eurasia and the others scattered. The only properly North American species is the well-known and favor ite Wilson's snipe (Gallinago delicata), also known as the snipe. jack-snipe, American snipe and, through mistaken identity, as the English snipe. Its length varies from 10 to IPA inches, the smaller birds being females, and its color a mottled mixture of various browns, black and white, giving a dark effect above, white below. There are 16 tail quills. Like most species of the family, it breeds northward, from the ex treme northern United States to beyond the Arctic Circle. Within the United States it is widely distributed, during the spring migrating from March to May, and more abundantly in the fall from September to November. It fre quents open marshes, both fresh and salt, and is consequently chiefly an inland bird, and is plentiful in the central West. In its southward journey it reaches the West Indies and South America, but seems less sensitive to cold than many of its relatives; and individuals sometimes haunt the vicinity of open springs during the prevalence of severe frosts both in the late fall and early spring. Unlike the bay birds the snipe is mostly solitary and never forms large flocks. Night is its chief season of activity, when it flies and migrates and to a great extent feeds. The soft ground in its haunts is probed in all directions for worms, insects, larvae and similar creatures which, with snails and slugs, are consumed in great quantities. When flushed it utters a loud, rather harsh note and flies rapidly and very irregularly for 20 or 30 yards before setting a direct course. During the mating and nesting season these birds are much about by day and are said to perform remark able aerial evolutions, often dropping swiftly from a height with a peculiar drumming sound caused by the air rushing through the wings.
The nest is a mere depression in the ground lined by a few grasses or leaves, usually in the shelter of a tussock or bush in a bog. The eggs are four and of the pyriform shape usual in the family and grayish-olive tinged with brown and blotched with browns.
The snipe is justly a favorite game-bird and presents qualities which fully test the skill of the sportsman. Its habits and haunts are so easily affected by weather and other conditions that an intimate knowledge of its peculiarities are necessary first to find and then to approach the snipe. On windy, stormy days these birds are extremely wild and their senses are so keen that an unskilled gunner will see only their jerky flight in the distance. On such occasions leave the dog at home and approach the birds from the windward side with a strong-shooting gun. As they always rise toward the wind some good shots may be afforded before the birds get well started. On warm, murky days they lie close and a well-trained setter or spaniel is necessary to flush them, especially if they be scarce. It is, of course, necessary to work against the wind, but when the dog marks, the gunner will do well to work to windward in order to get a quartering shot when the bird rises. The erratic flight of this bird in starting is very disconcerting to a novice and the best plan is to wait until it has steadied before shooting. As a table bird the snipe stands on a level with any.
Of the genus Macrorhamphus, in which the toes are slightly webbed, the legs more largely naked than in Gallinago, the wings longer and more pointed, and the summer and winter plum ages different, we have two species, M. griseus, the eastern dowitcher and M. scolopaceus, the western or long-billed dowitcher. The former is known in the summer plumage as the red breasted, the latter as the red-bellied snipe, which, with the differences in the bill and the generic characters, sufficiently distinguishes them. Their habits are similar and their breed ing habits are essentially those of Wilson's snipe. Within the United States they frequent the sea-coasts, flying in dense but not large flocks and associating with various sandpipers and yellow-legs. Their most distinctive traits are their confiding nature, proficiency as swim mers, swift flight and compact flocking. To the first and last of these is due their destruction in great numbers by bay-bird gunners, with whom they are great favorites.
Among European species of snipes may be mentioned the common or English snipe (G. gallinago), scarcely distinguishable from Wil son's snipe, except that it has only 14 tail feathers, and the great or solitary snipe (G. major), both of which have appeared as strag glers in North America.
Bibliography.—Baird, Brewer and Ridgway, 'Water Birds of North America' (Vol. I, Bos ton 1884) ; Bonhote, J. L., 'Birds of Britain' (London 1907) ; Elliot, 'North American Shore Birds' (New York 1895) ; Leffingwell, 'Shoot ing on Upland Marsh and Stream' (New York 1887); Rich, W. H., 'Feathered Game of the Northeast) (New York 1907); Sanford, 'Water Fowl Family) (New York 1903).