and brown

BIRDS AND ALL NATURE.

ILLUSTRATED BY COLOR PHOTOGRAPHY.

From col. Chi. Acad. Sciences.	WILSON'S SNIPE. 7/9 Life-size.	Copyright by Nature Study Pub. Co., 1898, Chicago.

WILSON'S SNIPE.

WILSON'S SNIPE, otherwise known as the English Snipe, Jacksnipe, and Guttersnipe, and which is one of our best known game birds, has a very extended range; indeed, covering the whole of North America, and migrating south in the winter to the West Indies and northern South America. Its long, compressed, flattened, and slightly expanded bill gives it an odd appearance, and renders it easily recognizable. From March till September the peculiar and cheerful "cheep" of the Snipe may be heard in the larger city parks where there are small lakes and open moist grounds, and where it can feed and probe with its long, soft, sensitive, pointed bill in the thin mud and soft earth for worms, larvae, and the tender roots of plants. In some localities in the Southern states, during the winter months, thousands of Snipe are killed on the marshes where they collect on some especially good feeding ground. We have rarely seen more than two together, as they are not social, moving about either alone or in pairs. Its movements on the ground are graceful and easy, and, while feeding, the tail is carried partly erect, the head downward, the bill barely clearing the ground. We recently watched one through an opera glass, but the frequency of its changes from point to point and the rapidity of its flight discouraged long observation. The flight is swift, and, at the start, in a zigzag manner. Sportsmen say it is a most difficult bird to shoot, requiring a quick eye and a snap shot to bag four out of five. Col. Goss said that he always had the best success when the birds were suddenly flushed, in shooting the instant its startled "scaipe" reached his ear, "as it is invariably heard the moment the bird is fairly in the air."

It is entertaining to watch the courtship of these birds, "as the male struts with drooping wings and wide spread tail around his mate in the most captivating manner, often at such times rising spiral-like with quickly beating wings high in the air, dropping back in a wavy, graceful circle, uttering at the same time his jarring, cackling love note, which, with the vibration of the wings upon the air, makes a rather pleasing sound."

The snipe's nest is usually placed on or under a tuft of grass, and is a mere depression, scantily lined with bits of old grass and leaves. The eggs are three or four, greyish olive, with more or less of a brownish shade, spotted and blotched chiefly about the larger end with varying shades of umber brown.

If you want to identify Wilson's Snipe, have with you a copy of this number of Birds and all Nature as you stroll along shore or beach. Our picture is his very image.

THE BLACK WOLF.

Some of my little readers have probably heard about the small boy who thought it rare fun to frighten his friends by crying "Wolf! Wolf!" as though he were being pursued. They lived in a wild part of the country where Wolves were frequently seen, but in time they grew used to Johnnie's little joke, so that one day when he cried "Wolf! Wolf!" in frantic tones they paid no attention to him. Alas! that day a Wolf really did sneak out of the woods—a hungry Wolf—and poor little Johnnie furnished him a very satisfactory meal. There is a deep meaning attached to this fable, which you had best ask your teacher to explain.

Well, the Black Wolf, whose picture we present is a fierce looking fellow indeed. We have heard so many stories about Wolves attacking travelers and their horses that we have thought them full of ferocity and courage, when in fact they are the most cowardly of all our animals. Unless pressed by extreme hunger they never attack animals larger than themselves, and then only in packs. A cur dog, as a rule, can drive the largest wolf on the plains. Lean, gaunt, and hungry looking, they are the essence of meanness and treachery. Their long, bushy tails are carried straight out behind, but when the animal is frightened, he puts his tail between his legs just like the common dog.

There are men who make it a business to go Wolf hunting in order to secure their "pelts," or hides. The bait they use is the carcass of some animal, elk, deer, or coon, which they impregnate with poison, and leave in a place which will do the most good. In the morning sometimes as many as fifty dead Wolves will be found scattered about the carcass whose flesh they had so ravenously devoured. A Wolf skin is worth about one dollar and a half, so that it pays a hunter very well to "catch" a number of these mean animals.

They are sometimes hunted on horseback with hounds, but they can run with such speed when frightened, that no ordinary dog can keep up with them. Among the pack are one or more greyhounds, who bring the wolf to bay and allow the other dogs to come up.

From col. Mr. F. Kaempfer.