COMMON SNIPE. 300 
of specific distinction, but this is not, I imagine, at 
all likely. 
Scolopaw brehmi having the two outer tail feathers 
somewhat elongated, of which an example in Mr. J. 
H. Gurney’s collection was shot some years back, at 
Earlham, near Norwich, is now, I believe, consdered 
to be merely a common snipe, with the middle tail- 
quills not grown to their full length. 
Pied and other varieties are met with at times. A 
very beautiful specimen, resembling in appearance the 
buff-coloured woodcock described at p. 295, was shot 
at Guestwick in December, 1851. The ground colour in 
this bird was pure white; the usual markings being 
delicately traced in light and dark shades of buff,* 
with the beak and legs pink instead of green. Another 
curiously marked snipe, having the head and neck 
white, streaked and dotted with dark brown and 
yellowish markings, the remainder of the plumage of 
the usual tint, interspersed with white feathers, and 
the legs and beak yellowish white, was killed in this 
county in December, 1856. Again, in the autumn of 
1866, as I am informed by Mr. Anthony Hamond, jun., 
a pure white snipe was killed on Walton Common, 
when the Prince of Wales, with other sportsmen, was 
shooting over that part of the Westacre estate. This 
very interesting specimen is now preserved at Sand- 
ringham Hall. Messrs. Gurney and Fisher have also 
recorded a singular malformation of beak in this species, 
a snipe examined by them having had the beak “for 
* Mr. J. H. Gurney, jun., has recorded in the “ Zoologist” for 
1868 (p. 1459), a somewhat similar variety in his own collection, 
which was purchased by Mr. Gatcombe, of Plymouth, in Leaden- 
hall Market, about the 3rd of September. “It is fawn coloured, 
retaining, however, all the zigzag mottling of the normal plumage, 
but so faint as to be hardly discernible.” 
