loo Sabine's Snipe 



Bv 1850, when Thompson pubhslu'd his Natural History of 

 Ireland, he knew of at least ten more examples, but was himself very 

 doubtful respecting its distinction as a species from the Common 

 Snipe. 



He was unable to corroborate Vigors' description of the struc- 

 tural characters. He found that the tail commonly consisted of 

 fourteen feathers, the tarsus, on the average, resembling that of 

 the Common Snipe ; nor could he find that the toes were united at 

 their base. The colour alone remained ; of that he said, " in colour, 

 Sabine's Snipe is constant and peculiar." 



In 1895, bringing our information up to comparatively recent 

 times, G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton published a paper * on Sabine's 

 Snipe, recording a total of 55 specimens seen and obtained up to 

 date. Of these, Ireland claimed 31, England 22, Scotland i, and 

 from the Continent one bird only was recorded. The Continental 

 bird was said to have been obtained in 1854 near Paris. It is now 

 in the British Museum, but it may be said at once that the history 

 of this bird is not above suspicion, and that it is by no means certain 

 that the specimen really was procured on the Continent. 



With this one exception, every Sabine's Snipe recorded so far 

 has been obtained in the British Islands. This is not the least 

 remarkable fact about this puzzling variety ; .since Vigors' original 

 description in 1822, an enormous number of Snipe, amounting to 

 many millions, must have been shot in different parts of the old 

 world, and yet not one of these melanisms has ever been 

 obtained outside Great Britain, while our own Islands have 

 yielded something like 100 specimens. 



It is now generally admitted that Sabine's Snipe is not a good 

 species, but is merely a melanistic variety of the Common Snipe. 

 Even the colour, the chief character on which Vigors based his 

 description, and which Thompson 30 years later described as being 

 " constant and peculiar," is now known to be very variable. 



There is the " type " colour, a very dark brown all over, and the 

 majority of specimens conform with this type ; but it would seem 

 likely that a sufficiently large series placed together would show an 

 almost complete gradation in colour, from the dark type to varieties 

 only a little darker than the Common Snipe. 



The question of sex does not appear to have any influence in 

 the matter ; the melanism has been found in birds of either sex. 



Age is of importance ; it is probable that all the specimens 

 obtained so far are " birds of the year." Prof. Newton has never 

 seen a Sabine's Snipe having the appearance of an adult bird. That 

 is in accord with our experience of albino or coloured varieties among 

 birds generally — they are mostly " birds of the year." 



In the twelve years succeeding Barrett-Hamilton's paper, a 

 number of other specimens have been obtained or observed. I 



* Insli Naturalist, 1S95, pp. 1-8. 



