NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 115 



Any specimens of the Dunlin which I have obtained in the 

 west have, I think without exception, proved to be of the short- 

 billed northern race. Out of the immense flocks which frequent 

 the muddy estuaries of the east coast, and those of other parts 

 of Scotland, very few indeed have the longer and more slender bill. 

 The medium-sized bill or the short bill is predominant.* 



THE COMMON SNIPE. 



SCO LOP AX GALLINAGO, Linnaeus. 



Very abundant and generally distributed. 



Obs. Jack Snipe, S. gallinula. — Mr Selby writes : " The game- 

 keeper of the Tongue district assured us that the Jack Snipe 

 breeds in Sutherland almost every year, and that he had obtained 

 the eggs, as well as young, in some boggy ground, about two miles 

 from Tongue. He shewed such an intimate knowledge of the 

 bird, as to do away with any impression upon our minds of a 

 mistake as to the species " (Edin. New Phil. Journal, Vol. xx., 

 1836, p. 292). Mr St. John, evidently referring to the same 

 locality, says that he " was never satisfied with the authenticity 

 of these accounts .... for the very man whom I was 

 referred to t as having seen this bird breeding, distinctly assured 

 me that it never had been seen in that county during the breeding 

 season." (" Tour in Sutherland," Vol. i.) 



To the above I may add that on different occasions I have 

 been assured that the Jack Snipe has bred or does breed, and that 

 the young have been shot in August; and these accounts were 

 frequently from persons who must have been perfectly well 

 acquainted with the bird. In vain, however, have I attempted to 

 obtain a nest of eggs, along with the old bird, by offering a large 

 reward. The fact still remains, I believe, that there is no collec- 

 tion containing thoroughly well-identified and well -authenticated 

 British specimens. 



• On the Firth of Forth, one day in autumn, when all the great flocks of 

 Dunlins had taken shelter on the lee shore from a stormy wind, I found and 

 fired into a small flock of some twenty on the windward shore, and killed seven 

 or eight. All these birds proved to be long-billed birds, and seemed to be 

 strangers on the coast. These long-billed birds are always larger and stouter, 

 and stronger-built birds than such as are found in the west in the breeding 

 season. I believe none of these long-biUed birds breed in Scotland, though they 

 may do so in Orkney and Shetland, 



t The same man whom Mr Selby quoted as his authority. 



