BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 161 



Coloration. — Pileum with two blackish and three pale (more or 

 less bufTy) stripes, two of the latter over each eye; upper parts spotted 

 and blotched with black and cinnamon-brown, the scapulars and 

 interscapulars broadly edged with buff; tail partly cinnamon-rufous; 

 axillars and under wing-coverts white, m.ore or less barred with gray 

 or dusky; sides and flanks broadly barred. 



Range. — Northern hemisphere in general. (Several species. **) 



KEY TO THE NORTH AMERICAN SPECIES OF GALLINAGO. 



a. Larger, with much larger feet (tarsus 35.5^0, middle toe, without claw, 34-39); 

 exposed culmen shorter than middle toe without claw; tibia feathered nearly to 

 tibio-tarsal joint; wing-coverts conspicuously and abruptly tipped with white; 

 abdominal region with at least concealed bars of dusky, usually distinctly barred ; 

 four outer rectrices (on each side) predominantly white, without cinuamoneous 

 tinge; outermost primary with outer web not white. (Europe, Asia, etc.; acci- 

 dental in North America.) Gallinago media (p. 161). 



aa. Smaller, with much smaller feet (tarsus 27.5-33.5, middle toe, without claw, 

 28-32.5); exposed culmen longer than middle toe with claw; tibia extensively 

 naked below; wing coverts neither conspicuously nor abruptly (sometimes not at 

 all) tipped with white; abdominal region wholly immaculate white; only one 

 lateral rectrix (on each side) predominantly white, all the retriccs tinged, more 

 or less, mth cinnamon-rufous; outermost primary ^vitll outer web white. 

 b. Rectrices usually 14, the lateral ones broader; axillars and proximal under-wing 

 coverts nearly immaculate white; sides and Hanks more or less narrowly barred 



with dusky. (Europe, Asia, etc.; Greenland.) Gallinago gallinago (p. 1G5). 



66. Rectrices usually 16, the lateral ones narrower; axillars and proximal under 

 wing-coverts broadly and regularly barred with dusky; sides and flanks more 

 broadly barred with dusky. (North America, migrating southward.) 



Gallinago delicata (p. 171). 



GALLINAGO MEDIA (Latham). 



DOUBLE SNIPE. 



Much heavier than G. gallinago and G. ddicata, with larger legs and 

 feet (exposed culmen shorter than middle toe without claw), tibia 

 feathered nearly to the tibio-tarsal joint, and under parts much more 

 extensively and heavily barred Vv'ith dusky. 



Adults (sexes alike).- — Pileum with a narro\N' median stripe of pale 

 buff and two much broader lateral stripes of sooty black, more or 

 less streaked (narro\\'ly) v.ith pale buffy brown or cinnamon, these 

 dark lateral stripes becoming much narrower on forehead; a very 

 broad superciliary stripe of pale buff or dull buffy whitish, involving 

 sides of forehead and (extending to sides of napt;, this pale stripe more 

 or less flecked, minutely, with dusky; nape and hindneck deeper 

 bufl", broadly streaked with dusk}^, the rest of head and neck pale 

 bull, rather sparsely streaked or flecked v>ith dusky and relieved by 

 a more or less "solid'' ioral stripe of dusky, extending from lateral 

 base of maxilla to anterior angle of eye, and an oblique stripe or 



" How many species are referable to this genus as properly restricted can not be 

 stated until the limits of the genus are accurately determined. 

 40017— 19— IkiU. 50, pt S 12 



