806 



S YS TEMA TIC S Y NOP SIS. — LI Ml COLJ^. 



under 0.25 wide, and white, together with broad white tips of the median wing- coverts. 

 Europe, Asia, and Africa ; accidental at Hudson's Bay. The North American record of this 

 species has been overlooked since the bird was described by Swainson in the F. B. A. ii, 1831, 

 p. 501, as a new species under the name of Scolopax leiicitrns, from Hudson's Bay; the type 

 specimen is extant in the British Museum, and has been identified with the well-known Gal- 

 linago major by Dr. Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv, 1896, p. G26 and p. 631 : see Coues, 

 Auk, Apr. 1897, p. 209. A. 0. U. Suppl. List, Auk, Jan. 1899, p. 105, No. [230. 1]. Strict 

 application of the law of priority would require the name of this species to be G. media, after 

 Frisch, 1763; Gerini, 1773; and Lath. 1787; but it would be a contradiction in terms to 

 impose upon the " Greater " or " Double " Snipe the designation media. 



G. gallina'go. (Fig. 555.) EUROPEAN Snipe. "English Snipe" proper. In size, form, 

 and general coloration indistinguishable from the next described, but tail-feathers normally 

 only 14, and the lateral ones not so narrow as in our Snipe, axillary featliers almost entirely 



y 



Fig. SCO. — The Snipe's family. (From " Sport with Gun and Rod." The Century Co., N. Y.) 



white, with slight and sparse dark markings, and feathers of flanks and sides less frequently 

 and less regularly barred with dark gray. Size of our Snipe, but bill averaging longer — over 

 2.75. (In the lesser European Snipe, Jack-Snipe, or Judcock, GalUnago {Limnocryptes) galli- 

 nnla, ihe sides and lining of wings are fully barred as in our S. delicata, but the tail-feathers 

 are 12, the outer ones little shorter and not abruptly narrower than the rest.) Europe : Only 

 North American as occurring frequently in Greenland ; accidental in Bermuda. (G. media of 

 2d-4th eds. of the Key; but this is the original Scolopax gall inago Linn., and therefore GalU- 

 nago gallinago by A. O. U. rules.) 



G. delicata. (Lat. meaning delicate — not in poor health, but dainty, as the bird is when 

 served on toast. Figs. 557, 560, 561.) American Snipe. Wilson's Snipe. Com- 



