SCOLOPACID/E. 



555 







THE GREAT SNIPE. 



Gallinago major (J. F. Gmelin). 



The Great, Double, or Solitary Snipe as it is often called, is an 

 annual visitor in small numbers to the eastern and southern por- 

 tions of England ; its arrivals — chiefly those of young birds — 

 being generally between the middle of August and the middle of 

 October. In the central and western districts it is far less frequent ; 

 while as regards the spring migration only a single instance is 

 cited by Stevenson — an adult, shot as it alighted on Yarmouth 

 beach. Two were killed near Glasgow on May i6th 1SS5, as 

 recorded by Mr. William Evans, who adds that, as far as he knows, 

 only seven or eight authentic specimens have been obtained in the 

 whole of Scotland. Mr. Williams, the well-known taxidermist in 

 Dublin, states (Zool. 1889, p. 2,2)) ^^at one was shot in co. Galway 

 on October 12th 1888, being only the second example which has 

 come under his notice in Ireland, though at least a dozen large 

 specimens of the Conunon Snipe have been forwarded to him for 

 preservation, under the belief that they belonged to the rarer 

 species; a third was killed on Achill Island in November 1888. 



In summer this species is found in the lowlands and also on the 

 fells of Scandinavia up to about 70^ N. lat., and breeds in Den- 

 mark — rather freely in Jutland, some parts of Northern Germany, 

 and, sparingly, in Holland. In the marshy districts of Poland to the 

 east of the Vistula, as well as in Russia down to about lat. 50°, it 



