176 SCOLOPACIU^. 
though at home in England I have occasionally heard them 
drumming of an evening in the New Forest as early as the 
20th of January, the weather then being unusually mild, atid 
the place where I heard them being their regular nesting- 
ground. 
I have often noticed that, in the marshes both in Morocco 
and Andalucia, the best ground for Snipe was a spot where 
sedges and rushes had been burnt during the summer; 
but the consequent absence of cover in these places rendered 
it useless to try and walk up to the birds, and the only way 
was to stand or sit perfectly still in the most favom'ite spot 
and await their return. I have more than once taken a chair 
down and sat in it, waiting for their flight overhead, much to 
the astonishment of the native population, who could not un- 
derstand such a proceeding. 
The tail of the common Snipe consists of fourteen feathers. 
Varieties or races of this species, varying in size and colour, 
have been named delamottii and brehmii; but in what the 
distinction consists it is difficult to perceive. Scolopax 
sabinii is now generally admitted to be nothing more than a 
melanism of the present species. 
246. Gallinago major (Gm.) . The Great Snipe or Solitary 
Snipe. 
Spanish. Agachadiza real. 
Favier only mentions a single specimen of this Snipe as 
having been obtained by him near Tangier, in 1859. It is, 
however, included in Mr. Drake's list, 'Ibis,' 1869, p. 153, as 
twice noticed in March. 
The Great Snipe is only met with near Gibraltar on passage, 
" here to-day, gone to-morrow." I saw tAvo and shot one at 
Casa Vieja on the 24th of October, 1868 ; one was killed near 
Gibraltar on the 17th of October, 1 871 ; and I know of another 
obtained in April, It is there a well-known bird, but, passing 
north late in April and early in May, and returning again in 
September and October, is not very liable to be noticed ; and 
I imagine that their chief line of migration lies more to the 
eastward. 
