SCOLOPACID.E — THE SNIPE FAMILY — 8C0L0PAX. 181 



marks, on each side of the rusty black-spotted area. Riuui) lighter cinnamon-rusty, narrowly 

 barred with dusky ; upper tail-coverts largely tipped with light gray. Tail-feathers black, ser- 

 rated along the outer edge with rusty, and widely tipped with light gray. Forehead and anterior 

 part of the crown, brownish gray ; posterior part of the crown and whole occiput, black, crossed 

 by four transverse narrow bands of light rusty, or ochraceous — two through the black, the other 

 two bounding it anteriorly and posteriorly. A wide loral stripe of blackish brown, running from 

 the rictus to the eye. Chin white. Lower parts in general pale fulvous grayish (nearly white 

 medially), marked with irregular transverse bars of dark brown. Quills dusky, their outer webs 

 marked with triangular spots of light cinnamon, arranged so as to form transverse bands ; outer 

 web of exterior quill widely edged with pure wliite. Bill and feet light horn-color, the former 

 blackish at the end. Downy Young: General hue delicate rusty ochraceous, tlio upper surface 

 marked with large blotch-like areas of deep rusty, these being arranged as follows : an isolated, 

 somewhat wedge-shaped, spot occupying the middle of the forehead ; a longitudinal stripe down 

 the middle of the rump ; a longitudinal patcli covering the occiput and nape, and sending out two 

 lateral branches, the first from the upper part to the eye, the second from the lower part across the 

 neck, where continued, more or less interruptedly, across the jugulum ; a dark chestnut (nearly 

 black) stripe from the bill to the eye. The other blotches covering the back, part of the wings, 

 and the anal region. 



Wing, nearly 8.00 ; culmen, about 3.00-3.25; tarsus, 1.50 ; middle toe, L30. 



The European Woodcock is of occasional and accidental occurrence in Xorth 

 America, and its appearance quite possibly is more frequent than we are aware of. 

 It is referred to, in one instance, in the *' Ibis," as having been included in the New- 

 foiuidland collection of mounted birds in the Exposition of 1867. 



In Lewis's •'*' American Sportsman " (p. 158), under the heading " Woodcock," refer- 

 ence is made in a footnote to a specimen of a Woodcock sent, about I860, to Mr. G. 

 D. Wetherill, Avhicli Aveighed fourteen ounces. When received, however, it was too 

 far gone to be preserved ; but it was, without mucli doiibt, a bird of this species. 

 Mr. George X. Lawrence cites another similar instance, where a friend of his shot, 

 near Newport, K. I., a large Woodcock, which w^eighed fourteen ounces ; unfortu- 

 nately it was not preserved. The fact that our Woodcock rarely reaches and never 

 exceeds nine ounces, while the usual weight of the European is fourteen, naturally 

 suggests that in both instances the specimens Avere examples of the rustictda. 



We are not, however, restricted to probabilities merely for our evidence of the 

 actual occurrence of this species within our limits. Mr. Lawrence has in his collec- 

 tion the skin of a European Woodcock purchased in the Washington Market of New 

 York, Dec. 6, 1859. It had been brought there with a lot of Quail, on board the boat 

 from Shrewsbury, X. J. 



This species appears to be widely distributed over Europe and the western portions 

 of Asia. It resorts in summer to northern regions for purposes of reproduction, and 

 in its migrations visits a wide extent of territory. 



A few breed in Great Britain, in various parts of the islands, but a large proportion 

 seen there are migrants from more northern regions. They breed throughout Den- 

 mark, Norway, Sweden, Lapland, and Northern Russia, arriving in Scandinavia at 

 the latter encl of March or the beginning of April, when they are found on the coast 

 in considerable numbers, but usually depart for the interior on the prevalence of 

 westerly winds. They are common in Western Lapland beyond the Arctic Circle, 

 and are generally and widely dispersed ; but are nowdiere numerous. The pine-forests 

 are their places of resort in summer. They are not found in Southern Germany in 

 the summer, and breed no farther south than Silesia, and thence northward. 



This is a celebrated game-bird in Europe, and especially in Great Britain and Ire- 

 land, where, in their fall migrations, the Woodcock arrive in great numbers, and are 



