290 



CHARADRIIFORMES 



CHAP. 



obtained by probing the soil with the long sensitive beak. The 

 flight is rapid and steady, the note not uttered when flushed 

 is whistling ; while during incubation a curious habit prevails 

 among the cocks of " reading " or traversing fixed routes at twi- 

 light, and uttering hoarse notes. The nest is a depression, usually 

 lined with dry leaves ; the four eggs, much larger and rounder than 

 those of the Snipe, are creamy-buff with pale brown, grey, and lilac 

 markings. The young are often carried by the parents between 

 their thighs, the bill probably aiding to steady them. Woodcocks ^ 



Fig. 60. Woodcock. Scolopax rusticula. x 



dre now seldom snared or netted in England. S. saturata of Java 

 and North-West New Guinea is a darker bird with almost uniform 

 black primaries, and a white abdomen with dusky bars. S.rochusseni 

 of the Moluccas has partly bare tibiae, like many Snipe, and a nearly 

 plain buff breast. The Woodcock of eastern North America is 

 Philoliela minor, which has the three outer primaries curiously 

 attenuated. 



The genus Gallinago differs from the above in having longi- 

 tudinal stripes on the head. G. caelestis, the Common or Full 

 Snipe,^ breeds in Northern and Central Europe and Asia, and 

 even in North Italy ; it is recorded from G-reenland and the 

 Bermudas, and migrates to the Atlantic Islands, the Gambia, the 

 Upper Nile, and the Indian Eegion. Its brown, black, and buff 

 plumage, with three buff streaks on the head, is well-known, 

 while there are normally fourteen rectrices. G. sabinii is merely 

 a dark form. As regards its autumnal influx and food the Snipe 

 resembles the Woodcock, but the cry of " scape-scape " and twisting 

 1 For the nerves of the bill, see Yarrell's Brit. Birds, 4th ed. iii. 1882-84, pp. 346, 347. 



