SABINE'S SNIPE. 379 



specimen first obtained, with the exception of being some- 

 what smaller. This difference of size most probably indicates 

 the difference of sex." 



Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, afterwards exhibited to the 

 Zoological Society of London a second Irish specimen, shot 

 by Captain Bontram, in the end of 1827, about a mile from 

 Garvagh, in the county of Londonderry. In 1833, Mr. 

 Selby " received a fresh specimen of this rare Snipe from 

 Morpeth, possessing all the characteristics of Mr. Vigors's 

 bird. The under parts, perhaps, a little darker, having 

 fewer bars or undulations of the lighter tint." Several 

 specimens are mentioned by Mr. Thompson as occurring in 

 various parts of Ireland, all the individuals recorded by him 

 as occurring in that country amounting to ten. " Not so 

 many," he continues, " have been procured in England, and 

 in Scotland none at all. (Jard., Macg.) This bird is not 

 known out of the British Islands, and there only as one of 

 which a few individuals have fallen beneath the guns of 

 Snipe-shooters." Mr. Thompson mentions two specimens 

 having thirteen tail-feathers, the true number being thus, no 

 doubt, fourteen, as in Scolopax Gallinago. 



