377 



SCOLOPAX SABINI. SABINE'S SNIPE. 



Scolopax Sabini. Vigors, Linn. Trans. XIV. 556. 



Scolopax Sabini. J aid. and St-lby, Illustr. of Ornith. pi. XXVII. 



Scolopax Sabini. Flem. Brit. Anim. 105. 



Scolopax Sabini. Jen. Brit. Vert. Anim. 204. 



Scolopax Sabini. Temm. Man. d'Ornitb. IV. 432. 



Scolopax Sabini. Selby, Illustr. Brit. Ornitb. II. 118. 



Scolopax Sabini. Gould, Birds of Eur. pt. XVI. 



Gallinago Sabini. Bonap. Comp. List, 52. 



Tail rounded, of fourteen feathers ; bill more than twice 

 the length of the head ; upper part of the head and hind-neck 

 brownish-black, spotted xoitli dull chestnut-brown ; back and 

 wings black, barred and spotted with chestnut-red ; tail black 

 for half its length, then chestnut-red, barred with black; 

 lower parts dull light red, undulated with dusky. 



Adult. — This species, of which I have no specimen for 

 description, is characterized by its peculiar style of colouring, 

 as indicated above. Otherwise it is very intimately allied to 

 the Common Snipe, of which it might be supposed a variety, 

 were the colouring of all the individuals hitherto obtained 

 not the same. It cannot be better introduced to notice than 

 in the words of its first describer, the late Mr. Vigors, who 

 announced its discovery in the fourteenth volume of the 

 Transactions of the Linnsean Society : — 



" This species is at once distinguished from every other 

 European species of Scolopax, by the total absence of white 

 from its plumage, or of any of those lighter tints of ferru- 

 ginous yellow, which extend more or less in stripes along 

 the head and back of them all. In this respect it exhibits 

 a strong resemblance to the Scolopax saturata of Dr. Horse- 



