620 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS — LIMICOL^. 



Kansas, Nebraska, Indian Terr, and Texas ; no extraliinital record ; migratory, but breeds 

 tliroughout its range ; winters in the south. This is the game bird, after all, say what you 

 please of Snipe, Quail, or Grouse. Eggs more rotund than those of most small waders, cor- 

 responding to the plump form of the bird, averaging 1.50 X 1-18 ; a short broad one 1.40 X 1-20 ; 

 along narrow one 1.55 X 1-15 ; bnjwnish clay-color, more huffy or mtire grayish, with number- 

 less chocolate -brown surface-markings and stone-gray shell-spots, none very large or bold ; size 

 and intensity of markings generally corresponding to depth of ground color ; usually laid in 

 April, earlier in the south. The woodcock has many cm-ious actions during the mating season. 

 The young are sometimes removed from danger by the parent, carrying them with the feet. 

 Very erratic and capricious in its movements. 



230. SCO'LOPAX. (Gr. aKoXona^, skolopax, Lat. scolopax, name of this very bird.) European 

 Woodcock. No outer primaries shortened or peculiar, the 1st narrowed somewhat on inner 

 vA'eb near end ; 1st and 2d longest, 3d little shorter, 4th much shorter ; wings long, com- 

 paratively, the point of the wing extending beyond the inner secondaries, which only fold about 

 to end of 5th quill. Generic characters, excepting those of the wing, much as in Philohela ; 

 same style of bill and feet and configuration of body and head ; plumage similarly variegated 

 above, but below barred crosswise throughout ; size much superior. Of all the snipe-like birds 

 of this country, loosely called '' Scolopax,''^ this straggler from Europe is the only one to which 

 tlie name is strictly applicable. 



606. S. rusti'cula. (Lat. rusticus, a rustic ; rusticula, a little countryman.) European Wood- 

 cock. Cockbird : Colors above harmoniously blended and varied black, brown, chestnut, and 

 yellowish -gray; under parts brownish -white, regularly wavy-barred throughout with dark 

 brown. A dusky stripe from bill to eye. Top and back of head brownish-black and brown, 

 divided by three or four cross-bars of brownish-white and brown. Each feather of upper parts 

 chestnut and black, in variegation, the black usually forming a large subterminal spot. Yel- 

 lowish-gray tending to form a scapular stripe on each side of the back. Quills and coverts of 

 wing blackish, pretty regularly varied with dark chestnut bars, on the larger quills this 

 chestnut paler and reduced to marginal indentations ; outer web of first primary plain whitish. 

 Upper tail-coverts rich chestnut, little varied with black, with pale tips. Tail-feathers black, 

 with angular chestnut indentations of outer webs ; their tips gray from above, viewed from 

 below glistening silvery-white. Under parts brownish-white, more or less suffused with 

 chestnut-brown on the breast, the regular dusky barring 'only giving way on the whitish throat, 

 changing to lengthwise streaks on the under tail-coverts. Hen : Unmistakably similar — sub- 

 stantially the same ; grayer above, much of the russet mottling of the ^ replaced by hoary- 

 gray. A much " better bird "than our woodcock; a third larger; weight 12-15 oz. Over a 

 foot long ; wing seven inches or more ; tail 3.50 ; bill only about as long as in our woodcock ; 

 tarsus 1.25 ; middle toe and claw more. I describe this species with particularity, and sports- 

 men who get a bird of this sort will do well to report the fact at once. It was formally 

 introduced to our fauna in the original edition of the " Key." There are several authentic 

 instances of its capture in this country, and it is unquestionably entitled to such place, as a 

 straggler from Europe, of which country it is the common woodcock. See Lewis, American 

 Sportsmen, ed. of 1868, p. 109, footnote (New Jersey) ; Lawrence, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y., 

 1866, p. 292 (Rhode Island and New Jersey) ; Baird, Am. Journ. Sci., xli, 1866, p. 25 (New- 

 foundland) ; Coues, Am. Nat., x, 1876, p. 372 (Virginia). 



231. GALLINA'GO. (Lat. gallina, a hen, whence gallinago, like virago from vir.) True Snipe. 

 Bill much longer than head, perfectly straight, soft to the end, where it is somewhat widened, 

 grooved on top, vascular and sensitive, in the dried state pitted ; lateral grooves running more 

 than half-way to tip ; gape narrow, not reaching beyond base of culmen. Ear under eye. 

 Tibiae feathered n(tt quite to the joint. Tarsus a little shorter than middle toe and claw; toes 

 perfectly free, cleft to the base, slender and not fringed. Wings rather short and rounded (for 



