ration: Spotted Sandpiper.]

Wilson's Snipe

Length about eleven inches, of which the very long and straight bill
makes more than two inches.

Upper parts all mixed with black, brown, gray, buff, and white in very
intricate patterns; long wing-feathers plain dusky with a white edge on
the outside one; tail-feathers beautifully barred with black, white, and
reddish.

Under parts white, but mottled with dusky on the breast, where it also
tinged with buff, and barred very distinctly on each side further back;
under tail-coverts barred with buff and black.

Eyes brown; feet and bill greenish-gray, the latter very soft and
sensitive, the former with a very small hind toe.

A Citizen of temperate North America, found at different seasons in
marshy and boggy places throughout the United States.

A member of the guild of Ground Gleaners, and, like the Woodcock and
Golden Plover, a fine game bird, which it is right to shoot for food at
the proper season.

The Spotted Sandpiper

Length seven and a half inches.

Upper parts a pretty Quaker color, like the Cuckoo's, but with many fine
curved black lines; tail regularly barred with black and white.

Under parts pure white, with many round black spots all over them; but
young birds do not have any spots.

Bill and feet flesh-colored, the former with a black tip, the latter
with a very small hind toe, and a little web at the roots of the front
toes.

A Summer Citizen of most parts of the United States and Canada, also
found in winter in some of the Southern States and far beyond.

A member of the guild of Ground Gleaners, and a very gentle, confiding
little bird who likes to be neighborly, and should never be shot, but
encouraged to nest in our fields.

The Least Sandpiper

Length only five and a half to six inches--the very least in size of all
the Snipe family. Upper parts black or blackish, in summer with
rusty-red edgings and white tips of many feathers, in winter these
edgings gray, a light line over the eye and a dark line from the bill to
the eye.

Under parts white, tinged in summer with buff on the breast and at all
seasons mottled there with dusky.

Middle tail feathers blackish, the other ones plain gray with white
edgings, but without any black cross-bars. Bill black; feet
greenish-gray, with a small hind toe like other Sandpipers', but no sign
of any web at the roots of the front toes.

A Citizen of North America, nesting far north, beyond th