152 THE BIEDS OF OXFOKDSHIEE. 



and exhibited as a curiosity to many inhabitants of Reading ; 

 a third was seen, but could not be taken/ [Bitral Sports, 

 Suj)plem€7if, 1 8 13.) 



On the 15th February, 1888, the morning following the 

 sev^ere snowstorm, a half-stupefied Woodcock was picked up 

 in the quadrangle of Wadham College (W. W. Fowler m 

 lit.). 



Two forms of the Woodcock are known to visit England in 

 autumn, namely, a rather large greyish bird, and a smaller 

 rufous-tinted form. I have examined specimens of both these 

 procured in North Oxon. . 



THE GREAT SNIPE. 



Gallinago major. 

 The Great Snipe is only an occasional visitor. The Messrs. 

 Matthews record that ' a few specimens have at different times 

 been killed in this part of the county. The last of them was 

 shot on the banks of the Isis, close to the city of Oxford, in 

 1839.'' [Zoologist, p. 2537.) One, weighing eight ounces, was 

 shot at Oxford at the end of September, 1851 (A. M. 

 Norman, Zoologist, p. 3330), and it was probably this specimen 

 which Mr. N. Rowe referred to when he informed the Rev. 

 F. O. Morris that one was shot, in the winter of 1 851, in a 

 sandpit on the road from Oxford to Botley. Mr. Norman 

 also mentions another killed in the same place ten years 

 earher, which may be the one preserved in the University 

 Museum, labelled Botley Meadow. The Hon. T. L. Powys 

 (now Lord Lilford), recorded the occurrence of a Great Snipe, 

 in the middle of September, 1853, on the Buckinghamshire 

 borders, near Waterperry [Zoologist, 1854). Another, in the 

 possession of the Rev. Murray A. Mathew, was shot on the 

 Christ Church cricket ground, Oxford, in 1857 {in lit.). Mr. 

 W. Newton, jun., has a Great Snipe which was shot in a piece 

 of cow-grass, on Harcourt Hill, near Benson, on the 29th 

 August, 1868. At Bampton one was procured on the 2nd 



