o76 SCOLOPAX GALLINAGO. 



their digestive organs or their contents, which are relished 

 by persons who would turn with loathing from meat in 

 which a worm had been seen. At the same time, the few 

 insects and crawling things that may happen to be in a 

 Snipe's stomach can do no harm, although they are not so 

 agreeable as the beans from a Wood-pigeon's crop, which I 

 have seen eaten. 



This species of Snipe is generally dispersed over the 

 continent, in the northern parts of which it is migratory. It 

 also occurs in various parts of Asia, but has not been met 

 with in America. 



Remarks. — A species of Snipe, Scolopax AVilsoni, occurs 

 in North America, so very similar in size, proportions, and 

 colours to ours, that on placing the two together one can 

 hardly discover any distinctive characters. That species, 

 however, has sixteen feathers in the tail, whereas ours has 

 only fourteen, and is said to differ in its notes and some of 

 its habits. 



M. Temminck gives as a distinctive character of our 

 Common Snipe a brown shaft to the outer as well as the 

 other quills ; but that shaft is always white for a fourth of its 

 length, and in the rest of its extent sometimes pale brown, 

 sometimes brownish-white, and occasionally entirely white. 



