sabine"'s snipe. 619 



British Islands. On the 2Gth of October 1824, a female of 

 this species was shot on the banks of the Medway, near Ro- 

 chester, and is preserved in the valuable collection of JSIr. 

 Dunning, of Maidstone. The specimen was kindly commu- 

 nicated to me by that gentleman, and was exhibited to the 

 Zoological Club on the 23rd of November 1824. It ac- 

 cords in every particular with the specimen first obtained, 

 with the exception of being somewhat smaller. This dif- 

 ference of size most probably indicates the difference of sex." 

 This example passed recently into the possession of Mr. 

 Gould. A third specimen was afterwards exhibited at one 

 of the evening meetings of the Zoological Society in London, 

 by Mr. W. Thompson of Belfast. " This bird was shot by 

 Captain Bonliam of the 10th Hussars, at the end of Novem- 

 ber or beginning of December, 1827, near Garvagh, in the 

 county of Londonderry, being the second individual killed in 

 Ireland. In a letter to a mutual friend. Captain Bonliam re- 

 marks of this bird, that it sprung from the side of a high 

 heathery hill, from which common snipes were at the same 

 time raised, but that it did not call as they do. His want of 

 success in obtaining it before the third shot, afforded Captain 

 Bonliam an opportunity of remarking its disregard for his 

 presence, which was manifested by its alighting quite near 

 again, after being fired at, in the manner of the Jack Snipe." 



Mr. Selby has since recorded a fourth example which was 

 received by him from Morpeth, possessing all the character- 

 istics of Mr. Vigor's bird : the under parts were perhaps a 

 little darker, having fewer bars or undulations of the lighter 

 tint. 



In 1836, Mr. Eyton, in his Rare British Birds, says, he 

 was informed by the Earl of Malmesbury that a Snipe of this 

 species had been killed by his son, in the breeding-season, 

 near Heron Court in Hampshire. 



