340 SCOLOPACIDiE. 



at Ondonga, in the northern portion of Damara Land.* Pass- 

 ing to Asia, the Great Snipe has heen obtained at Erzeroum, 

 and by Canon Tristram at Beyrout (Ibis, 1882, p. 408), also 

 in Mesopotamia, and Sir 0. St. John found it not uncom- 

 monly in Northern Persia, but it does not appear to have 

 been recorded as yet from Afghanistan or India. In Siberia 

 Mr. Seebohm found it plentiful on the Yenesei, near the 

 Arctic circle, arriving there on the 11th June, and Piadde 

 states that he met with it near Irkutsk, and also in the 

 Bureja mountains, but he did not obtain specimens, nor do 

 David or Swinhoe record it from China. In Japan it seems 

 to be replaced by GalUncnjo aiistmlis (Lath.), a larger and 

 conspicuously distinct species. 



In the adult the beak is dark brown at the end, pale 

 yellow-brown at the base ; irides dark brown ; from the base 

 of the beak to the eye a dark brow'n streak ; above that, over 

 the eye and the ear-coverts, a streak of pale brown ; forehead 

 and top of the head rich dark brown, divided along the 

 middle line from before backwards by a pale brown stripe ; 

 neck all round pale brown, the centre of each feather darker 

 brown ; interscapulars, scapulars, and back, rich brownish- 

 black, with central lines and broad margins of rich buff or 

 fawn colour ; lesser wing-coverts nearly black, the upper 

 series tipped with pale brown, the lower series tipped with 

 white ; great coverts black, tipped with white ; primary quill- 

 feathers dull greyish-black, with lighter shafts ; secondaries 

 dull black, tipped with white ; tertials black, barred and 

 streaked with pale brown ; rump very dark brown, edged with 

 pale brown ; upper' tail-coverts pale yellow-brown, varied with 

 dark brown ; tail feathers sixteen ;f the four on each outside 

 white, crossed with two or three bars on the outer webs only 

 near the base, the others rich brow^nish-black over three- 

 fourths of their length from the base, then a patch of chest- 



* J. II. Gurney, B. Damara Land, p. 312 ; T. Ayres, Ibis, 1877, p. 351. 



t The number of tail-ffatlicrs is subject to individual vaiiation, as in the 

 Common Snipe. Tlie late Mr. Rorld recorded (Zool. s..s. p. 1482) an example 

 killed in Cornwall which bad eighteen tail- feathers, and Professor Giglioli 

 states (Ibi?, 1881, p. 210) that he has a specimen with the same number (which 

 was supposcil l>y Savi to be the normal one) in the Museum at Florence. 



