SNIPE 135 



weathercock. Occasional!)' these birds will perch on trees, and one 

 instance, at least, is known of a woodcock alighting on the sea, from 

 which it rose without apparent difficulty. The nest, which is well 

 lined with dead leaves and grass, 

 is placed in the usual hollow ; 

 and the eggs are generally laid 

 in April, although they have been 

 found at the beginning of March. 

 In shape the eggs do not, by any 

 means, always preserve the peg- 

 top form characteristic of those 

 of the family in general, but may 



be oval. The}' are well glossed, head of woodcock, showing e.-^r. 



with a ground - colour varying 



from cream or greyish white to pale buff, and spots, blotches, and 

 cloudings of yellowish and umber-brown, and conspicuous deep-seated 

 markings of purple more than usually prominent. From just over i:^ 

 to a fraction short of 2 inches are the limits of their length. 



„ . In conformit^• with the practice adopted in similar 



Snipe . ,' . , • r .1 



,„ ,,. , . X nistances, the typical representative 01 the genus 



(Galhnag-o eoelestis). . , ^^, . V , • , ^, • ^, 



ijalbnago is here designated simply the snipe, the 



prefix common, or fan-tailed, being reserved for use only when required 

 to distinguish between this and other species. Whether the division 

 of the snipes from the woodcock {Scolopax) as a separate genus is 

 altogether advisable may perhaps be open to question, but as this is 

 very generally done, the same course is here followed. From the 

 woodcock snipe are distinguished by the legs being bare of feathers 

 for some distance above the upper end of the shank ; and likewise by 

 the circumstance that the markings on the head, as on the scapular region 

 of the body, take the form of pale longitudinal stripes instead of trans- 

 verse bars in the former and blotchings in the latter region. Another 

 difference is that the secondary quills of the wings are as long as the 

 primaries. The number of tail-feathers varies from twelve to twenty- 

 eight. The genus is represented by some twenty species, with a 

 collectively world-wide range. 



The snipe is the Scolopax gallinago of Linnaeus, and hence the 

 Gallinago gallinago of many modern ornithologists. In the case of such 

 a well-known bird any detailed description would be unnecessary, and 

 it will accordingly suffice to state that the present species usually has 

 fourteen tail-feathers, measures 10^ inches in length, and generally 



