MICROPTERA. 193 



The American Woodcock seems to afford a link of connection be- 

 twixt tlie Rusticola and true Scolopax. As in the Snipe, the body is 

 more slender ; the head, less elevated at the vertex, is more rounded ; 

 the feet rather slender^ and the tail, of unequal sized feathers, is 

 graduated to a point. The structure of the wings is very peculiar 

 and characteristic, nothing of the kind existing in the Woodcock of 

 Europe, (now before me.) It is in consequence a bird of more re- 

 tiring habits, less capable of continued flight, being often sedentary 

 in the countries in which it breeds, and migrating short distances 

 merely over land, as the severity of the winter season increases 

 where it happens to reside. The sexes are very different in size, the 

 female being much larger, but individuals vary much likewise from 

 the abundance or scarcity of their food, and the period of the year 

 in which they have been reared. To show the relative shortness of 

 the wing in a specimen of 13J inches, it measures, from the shoulder 

 to the point only about 5 inches : in the European Woodcock of 15 

 inches, the same part of the wing is 7 inches in length. 



17 



