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GALLINAGO SCOLOPACINA.

Common Snipe.

Scolopax Gallinago, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 244,
uniclavatus, Hodgs. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., 1837, p. 492.
Sabini, Vig. in Linn, Trans., vol. xiv. p. 556, pl. 31.
—— (Ascalopax) Gallinago, Schrenck, Reis. und Forsch. im Amurlande, Band i. p. 421.

Gallinago media, Steph. Cont. of Shaw’s Gen, Zool., vol. xii. p. 54; Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. iii. p. 583,
Gallinago, sp. 2.

——— scolopacinus, Bonap. Geog. and Comp. List of the Birds
Semmes Crchmi, Kaup.

Telmatias gallinago, Blas. List of Birds of Eur., Engl, edit., p. 19.

of Eur. and N. Am., Paros

 

 

So much has been written respecting the habits and economy of this highly esteemed bird, that to say any-

thing new on these points would be almost impossible. Mr. Selby must ever take the first rank among
living writers on those of our native birds which are of especial interest to sportsmen ; and accordingly
much information with regard to this species may be found in his ‘ British Ornithology.” Thompson and
Macgillivray have also both left behind them abundant notes relative to it. My own remarks will take a
wider field; for I shall give some account of the range of the bird in other countries, and of the varieties
which occasionally occur. Although the Snipe is strictly an indigenous bird, vast accessions to those bred
in England and Ireland annually occur—great flights arriving from Norway and Sweden in the month of
November, and spreading themselves over every part of the British Islands, from north to south and from
east to west. In Ireland, owing to the greater amount of boggy and undrained land, the bird is even more
abundant than in England. It is an inhabitant of all parts of Europe, Iceland, Greenland, a great part of
Africa, the whole of Asia Minor, western and northern India, China and Japan: it is enumerated in the list
of the birds of the Amoor, and it is doubtless spread over the whole of Siberia.

The Gallnago Brehmii of Kaup must, I think, rank as a synonym of our bird, since the principal
difference consists in an elongation of the outer tail-feathers, which I believe to be characteristic of one
or other of the old birds in the breeding-season; and the Scolopax Sabini of Vigors should be placed in
the same category; for, notwithstanding the dark colouring at the specimens to which that name has been
applied, and the difference in some of their markings, ornithologists now consider them) ito be merely a
black variety ; still this extraordinary departure from themonmal colouring of the plumage is very puzzling,
and specimens in this state must always be regarded with interest: the last example oe econ” =
England was shot by Brydges Willyams, Esq., of Nan’s Kavel in Cornwall, in 1861, and is now in the

i nat gentleman.

icles must have experienced great difficulty mn finding good a . oe i
various members of this group of birds, some of the foreign species being most closely allied ; this ifficulty,

does not exist with regard to the three which inhabit England, for no birds ean be more different.
Hine however, is every now and then found in our markets, which on ae me Oe a
lopacina is found to differ, being redder in colour and weighing SIX oe 2 as a aren
bird has not yet received a specific name ; and, after all, it may be only a os - ees oe ae ee
requires close attention. Mr. Rodd says, in the = Zoologist, p- he ” a el a
occasionally met with a Snipe in this neighbourhood, which I strongly se 0 co
: d not hitherto described. I think the first was in 1834. on ie 2 . am} :
a oo tice; and I may remark that the size of the new bird is longer and more
me coe onder: my es i TI whole of the tints of the upper plumage, both as to the rufous
bulky than the Common hae - dorsal stripes are much narrower, and appear altogether more
arker,

and buff markings, are d There is also more rufous about the head and shoulders, and the

3 -olopacinus. ; i
eet eo fo a the flanks much more striated, and the belly less silvery white.
ark Ni ciou ?

: sr: they all appear larger than the Common
spond with each other ; they PP pes éiforsence ae
Mr. Vingoe has been looking ot I

under parts are more d
All the specimens that I have seen corre Pe
eee Sen ae in aeeane one, which, he says, rose without any noise,
during this hard winter fee cor a examined,” says Mr. Gatcombe (‘ Zoologist,’ p. hee
and without any companions. ariet  Sni e, so accurately described by Mr. Rodd. oe of a ille a
examples of the large brown Pe ‘ ae paca in size some specimens of S. major, but differ a oa
ee fe. ee ic a only fourteen feathers in the tail. The general markings were
that species in having th rhite, ¢ p