136 



PLOVER GROUP 



weighs between 4 and 4^ oz., although specimens of 5 oz. arc 

 occasionally met with, while two or three still heavier examples are 

 recorded. A dark phase has been regarded as a distinct species, under 

 the name of Sabine's snipe ; and in the extreme development of this 

 type the normal buff stripes on the edges of the scapulars are wanting, 

 as is also the stripe above the eye. Of the fifty-five known examples 

 of these melanlstic snipe, thirty-one were killed in Ireland and twenty- 

 two in England, while of the remaining pair one came from Scotland 

 and the other from the Continent. W'c thus have an interesting case 



of the restriction to a moist region of an occasional black phase ; 

 melanism, or blackness, in animals normally light-coloured being 

 most developed in humid districts. Two examples of white snipe 

 arc known ; and the British Museum possesses a very beautiful pied 

 specimen remarkable for the symmetrical arrangement of the dark and 

 light areas. Immature birds differ from the adults by their more 

 rufous tone of colour, and the narrower pale stripes on the scapular 

 region. 



The breeding -range of the snipe includes the greater part of 

 Europe, extending southwards, it is reported, to the marshes of 

 northern Italy, while in Asia it reaches at least as far cast as Turk- 

 estan and the eastern portion of Mongolia ; northwards, latitude 70° 

 appears to be about the limit. Throughout the more temperate 



