THE TRUE SNIPES. 2ll 



sccondnries, which are as long as the primaries, as well as the 

 bare tibia and the number of the tail-feathers, which range from 

 fourteen in the Common Snipe to twenty-six in the Wire-tailed 

 Snipe {G. stcnura). The Snipes have no bars on the inner 

 webs of the primaries, and Mr. Seebohm has also pointed out 

 that in the Snipes the markings on the head are longitudinal, 

 whereas in the Wood-cocks they are transverse. 



I. THE GREAT SNIPE. GALLTNAGO MAJOR. 



Scolopax majoi', Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 66 1 (1788); Macgill. Brit. 



B. iv. p. 364 (1852); Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 237 



(1885). 

 Galliiiago major^ Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 631, pi. 541 (1876); 



B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 165 (1883); Saunders, ed. Yar- 



rell's Brit. B. iii. p. 336 (1883); id. Man. Brit. B. p. 555 



(1889). 



Adnlt Male. — General colour above black, mottled with sandy- 

 buff, with which the feathers are fringed and barred in an 

 irregular and wavy manner so as to leave large patches of 

 black ; the scapulars with broader and whiter edges, so as to 

 form a double line down the back ; low^er back, rump, and 

 upper tail-coverts sandy-buff, barred with dusky-brown, the 

 ends of the tail-coverts vdiiter; wing-coverts blackish-brown, 

 the marginal series with ashy fringes, the remainder with con- 

 spicuous white tips, before which is a black sub-terminal bar, 

 the inner greater coverts also barred with sandy-rufous ; bas- 

 tard-wing and primary-coverts blackish, tipped with white ; 

 quills dark brown, the shafts of the primaries white at the base, 

 the secondaries tipped with white, the innermost being barred 

 with sandy-rufous and resembling the back ; tail-feathers 

 bright rufous, with black bases and black bars on the terminal 

 half of the feather, scarcely visible near the tip, the white tips 

 to the feathers gradually increasing in extent, until the four 

 outer ones on each side are entirely white, except for a little 

 black near the base ; centre of crown whitish, bordered on 

 each side by a broad band of black, slightly freckled with 

 rufous, and followed by a broad superciliary streak, ashy- 

 whitish in front and fulvescent behind; a dusky streak from 

 the base of the bill to the eye ; sides of face whitish, with 



p 2 



