GREAT SNIPE. 60 1 



Of Yorkiihire varieties, Tunstall recorded one sent to him 

 in 1766, shot in Winston lordship, near York, which had 

 all the large feathers perfectly white. The late W. Talbot 

 of Wakefield had one in his collection, taken on 21st September 

 185 1, of a uniform rufous or light brown shade ; a white speci- 

 men was killed on Strensall Common in October 1875 ; and 

 an example, almost white in plumage but with faint yellow 

 markings, was reported at Ormesby-in-Cleveland in the first 

 week of November 1904. 



GREAT SNIPE. 



Qallinago major {Gmelin). 



Bird of passage, of uncommon occurrence. 



In all probability the earliest reference to this bird in 

 Yorkshire is that reported by R. Leyland, as shot in 1836, 

 and which is mentioned in Thomas Allis's Report of 1844, 

 thus : — 



Scolopax major. — Great Snipe — F. O. Morris reports two shot near 

 Doncaster ; R. Leyland one from Sowerby Moor, shot 27th September 

 1836, and now in the Halifax Literary and Philosophical Society's 

 Museum. W. Eddison says a few specimens have been shot, but the 

 bird is very rare ; those found were shot near Deane Head ; H. Chapman 

 has also had the bird ; A. Strickland has one specimen killed at Flam- 

 borough. 



The Great, or Solitary, Snipe is a bird of passage in autumn 

 or winter, of rare occurrence. Instances are reported of indi- 

 viduals being killed on nth August 1899, at Townhead, near 

 Sheffield ; on 23rd August 1901, at Cherry Cob Sands, near 

 Spurn ; and in the last week of the same month in 1877 

 and 1887, near Beverley ; but, generally speaking, it does not 

 arrive until September. 



The average weight of this species is 7^02. to 8oz., and an 

 example weighing io|oz., which occurred near Pickering, 

 and was recorded in the Field (5th October 1895), calls forth 



