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Mr. H. Seebohm on the Ornithology of Siberia. 156 
an operation which seemed so engrossing that they appeared 
seldom to discover until they were on the ground that they 
had chosen a spot to alight within twenty yards of a man 
with a gun. It was amusing to see them find out their mis- 
take. Sometimes as soon as they caught my eye they would 
take wing and fly quietly away ; but more often they would 
hurry off as fast as their legs would carry them, and hide 
behind a tuft of grass ora bush. I never heard the Pin-tailed 
Snipe “ drum,” as the Common Snipe often does, when wheel- 
ing round and round at a considerable height in the air ; nor 
did I ever hear the tyzk-tyuk so characteristic of the Common 
Snipe. I think the Pin-tailed Snipe is much easier to shoot 
than our bird. The flight seems to me slower and less zigzag. 
GALLINAGO SCOLOPACINA, Bonap. 
The Common Snipe was either much rarer or much more 
wary than the Pin-tailed Snipe ; for out of twenty skins which 
I brought home with me four proved to be those of G. sco- 
lopacina, and sixteen those of G. stenura. They probably 
arrive on the Arctic circle at the same time, as my first Pin- 
tailed Snipe was shot on the 5th of June and my first Com- 
mon Snipe on the 9th. I founda nest of the Common Snipe 
in a marsh on the outskirts of the forest in lat. 67° on the 
6th of July. The eggs were considerably incubated. I can 
find no differences in size or general coloration in these two 
Snipes ; but a minute examination discloses the following cha- 
racters :—My skins of G. scolopacina vary in length of culmen 
from 2°87 to 3 inches, whilst those of G. stenura only mea- 
sure from 2°33 to 2°73. G. stenura may be always at once 
recognized by the very narrow and stiff feathers on each side 
_ of the tail. The tail of this bird is also shorter, in my skins 
varying from 1:65 to 1:9. In my skins of G. scolopacina the 
length of the tail varies from 2°4 to 2-6. In G. stenura the 
under wing-coverts are all distinctly barred with black, whilst 
in G. scolopacina many of them are pure white. These two 
species of Snipe probably breed north of the Arctic circle, 
as I saw nothing more of them at the Koo-ray’-i-ka after the | 
middle of June. 
zal; 
