308 SKETCHES OF EUROPEAN ORNITHOLOGY. 
out at the summit; on which they place themselves astride to perform 
the process of incubation; prevented, by the length of their legs, 
from sitting on the nest, in the ordinary fashion. The eggs are two 
in number, pure-white, and of an oblong figure. 
There are several defects in the principal figure of the Flamingo, 
as delineated by Mr. Gould. The leg on which it stands is much too 
thick ; the neck too short; and the bill certainly less curved than in 
the cabinet-specimens with which our eye is familiar. The structure 
of the latter organ is more correctly figured by the American Wilson, 
and even by Rennie, in his Architecture of Birds, than by Gould in 
this elaborate and finely-coloured engraving. 
PiaTE XII. Great Snipe,—Scolopax majo?,—Le Grande ou 
Double Bécassine, /’r.,—Beccacino maggiore, J¢.,—Mittelschnepfe, 
G. A bold and striking figure of the male bird, somewhat harshly 
coloured. The impropriety of the application of terms, indicative of 
size, for the specific designation of animals, or plants, is rendered 
very obvious in the present instance: for the Great Snipe, although 
the largest of the European, is actually surpassed in size, by two 
Asiatic, and one American species. The bird, however, is of solitary 
habits ; and, consequently, may be distinguished by the epithet, solz- 
taria, until a better specific designation can be devised. All terms, 
derived from the habits of animals, are only admissible into philoso- 
phical Zoology in the absence of others founded on some striking 
peculiarity of external structure or colouring. 
Piate XIII. The Solan Gannet,— Sula bassana,—le Fou blanc 
ou de Bassan, Fr.,—der Bassanische Pelikan, G.,—Jan van Gent, 
D. Than the two figures of the adult and young bird, here repre- 
sented, nothing, more strikingly correct or beautiful, has ever been 
conceived or executed. The rocky and precipitous coasts of Scotland 
and the adjacent isles, as that of Ailsa, and the Bass rock, are se- 
lected as the principal habitation, and the breeding places, of this 
powerful bird,— S. alba, of Meyer,—Pelicanus bassanus, and Solan 
Goose of the older Ornithologists. Till the end of the fourth year, 
when the adult state is attained, the Gannet exhibits great variations 
of plumage. The female lays one white egg. Fishes taken by the 
act of plunging, constitute its food. 
PiaTeE XIV. Of the Broad-billed Tringa,— 77. platyrhyncha,— 
le Bécasseau platyrhinque, ’r..— Numenius pygmeus, and Pigmy 
Curlew, of Latham,—one exquisite figure is here given. Temminck 
describes it as inhabiting the marshes of North Europe and America. 
It passes, annually, southward along the eastern rivers of the Eu- 
