COMMON SNIPE. 349 



A young bird about two-thirds grown, with the beak only 

 one inch long, and with down still adhering about the head, 

 has the narrow, light-coloured margins, and the rich red- 

 brown on the feathers of the upper surface of the body and 

 wings, as in the old bird in summer. 



Albinos, and fawn-coloured and abnormally mottled varie- 

 ties of the Common Snipe have at times been obtained, 

 and some remarkable examples are in the collection of 

 Mr. John Marshall, of Taunton. Individuals are occasion- 

 ally recorded of a form which is now generally admitted to 

 be a melanic variety, but which was formerly considered 

 to be entitled to specific rank under the appellation of 

 ' Sabine's Snipe,' and as such it has been figure4 and de- 

 scribed in former Editions of this work. This name was 

 conferred by the late N. A. Vigors (Tr. Linn. Soc. xiv. 

 p. 557) upon a bird shot by the Rev. Chas. Doyne, of Port- 

 arlington, Queen's Co., Ireland, on the 21st August, 1822 ; 

 and many examples have subsequently been recorded. Mr. 

 J. E. Harting, in 'The Field' of 10th December, 1870, 

 furnished a list of the reported occurrences up to that date, 

 from which it appeared that it had been met with in Ireland 

 and England in every month of the year excepting June 

 and July. Since then the occurrence of an example near 

 Montrose, its first appearance in Scotland, has been re- 

 corded by Major H. W. Feilden (Zool. s.s. p. 3188) ; and 

 there have been a few more in other parts of our islands. 

 A light-coloured specimen now in the foreign collection of 

 the British Museum, was stated by the late Jules Verreaux 

 to have been shot near Paris. At the time that ' Sabine's 

 Snipe ' was assumed to be a distinct species, many supposed 

 points of difference between it and the Common Snipe were 

 detected and insisted upon : especially the number of the 

 tail-feathers, which was stated to be only twelve ; but so 

 many examples proved to have fourteen, that this distinction 

 had to be given up. The ovate shape of the dorsal feathers 

 was another point, which may be accounted for by the 

 supposition that in this, as with many other varieties, the 

 examples are all birds of the year. Mr. Harting has 



