CHARADRIID/K. 



621 



THE RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 

 Macrorha.mphus griseus (J. F. Gmelin). 



The trivial name of this American species is somewhat unfortu- 

 nate, for the bird does not belong to the Sub-family Scolopacinse, 

 but to the Totaninae, among which it now finds its proper place. 

 Its occurrence in Great Britain was first noticed by Montagu, who 

 described and figured — under the name of Brown Snipe — a bird 

 which was killed in Devon in October of a year prior to 1802, and 

 now in the British Museum. Two or three more specimens are said 

 to have been procured in the above county, and one has been shot 

 in the Scilly Islands ; Middlesex has produced two, Norfolk three, 

 Lincolnshire one (on August 15th 1882), Lancashire one (now in 

 the Preston Museum), and another in September 1891 ; while on the 

 Cumberland side of the Solway a young bird, afterwards in Hey- 

 sham's collection, was taken on September 25th 1835. All these 

 were obtained in autumn. In Scotland, a young bird (now in the 

 Edinburgh Museum), was shot near Largo, Fifeshire, in September 

 1867 ; a correctly identified example is .said to have been killed in 

 Lanarkshire ; and on September 2nd 1891 one was obtained in 

 Argyll. In Ireland, in 1893, an immature female was shot on 

 September 29th in Queen's County, and an adult female on 

 October nth in co. Tipperary. 



On the mainland of Europe the Red-breasted Snipe has been 

 found in Denmark, Picardy and Normandy; while on the other side 



