Adding the numbers of even a few market gunners' statistics would result in a total which looks like the national debt. Gentle, tame and extremely gregarious, the BROWNBACKS probably have suffered more than other species of Shore Birds. The discharge of a gun does not frighten them and members of a flock will return to decoys until the last Bird lies on the ground.
Nelson's account of the "Longbill Dowitcher" is given here:
As early as the tenth of May this peculiar Snipe returns to its Summer home on the Lower Yukon. Altho the ground may be snow-covered, with bare patches here and there, the birds were already engaged in love-making. By the first of June then, loud cries are heard everywhere especially at morning and evening. Two or three males go twisting and turning after a female, with marvelous swiftness. At intervals a pursuer checks his flight and voices a strident peet u weet; weet-too, weet-too! then goes on full tilt.
A male will rise 15 or 20 yards and, hovering upon quivering wings, pour forth a lisping musical song while the female from her retreat below, admiringly watches her rapturous lover.
I have frequently mistaken advancing birds for Lesser Yellowlegs from their calls when trying to lure them within pencil range on Long Island marshes.
Eastern North America. Winters from Gulf States, south.