366 SCOLOPAX MAJOR. 



wing from flexure 5£ ; tail 2^ ; bill along the ridge 2£ ; 

 tarsus 1^; hind toe -fa, its claw ^-; middle toe -f^, its 

 claw 1 3 J . 



Female. — The female is similar to the male. 



Habits. — This species has been found breeding in Nor- 

 way, Sweden, and some parts of Germany. It has been 

 observed in Holland, France, Switzerland, Italy, Hungary, 

 and the Caucasus. In Britain, — it has not hitherto, I believe, 

 been found in Shetland; but in the Historia Naturalis 

 Orcadensis it is stated that " this bird appeared several 

 times in marshy ground in Sanday, in September, 1815." 

 In Scotland it appears to be very rare. Mr. St. John says 

 he never saw but one there, and that was in Sutherland. I 

 have not seen an individual, dead or alive, that had the 

 honour of standing on Scottish ground ; but several reports 

 of its occurrence along the east coast have come to my ears. 

 Mr. Selby states that several instances of its occurrence in 

 Northumberland had come to his knowledge within the 

 eight or ten years preceding 1833, and was informed that 

 five or six had been shot, in 1826, in a morass in the county 

 of Durham. Montagu relates that individuals had been 

 killed in the counties of Kent, Wilts, and Lancaster ; and 

 other localities have since been given. Mr. Yarrell says it 

 is now by no means uncommon in England, but occurs more 

 frequently in autumn than in any other season; and Mr. 

 Thompson notes it as occasionally obtained in Ireland, 

 though he " never could meet with one among the thousands 

 of Snipes exposed for sale during the autumn and winter in 

 Belfast." Considering its comparative scarcity as an autumnal 

 visitant, Mr. Selby's remark that " the immediate direction 

 of their latitudinal flight is much to the east of the longitude 

 of the British Islands," is probably correct. The course of 

 that flight, however, does not appear to have as yet been 

 determined by observation. 



The habits of the Great Snipe may be tolerably well 

 made out by comparing the various statements and notices 

 given by authors. It arrives in the northern countries in 



