182 COMMON SNIPE. 



our authority rests on the evidence of sportsmen; 

 Lloyd, in his Northern Field Sports, finds it abun- 

 dant in the north of Europe. Mr. Yarrell, on the 

 authority of Mr. Dann, states, that it " breeds in 

 extensive morasses and swamps, in the mountainous 

 districts of Norway and Sweden. From Scona to 

 Lapland it is widely distributed. Russia and Siberia 

 are given to it by Pennant ; the vicinity of Smyrna 

 by Mr. Strickland. It is enumerated in the Suma- 

 tran Catalogue of Sir Stamford Raffle's collection. 

 The birds of America are distinct. 



The markings of the plumage of many of the 

 Snipes is so similar, that there is great difficulty in 

 describing them so as to show specific distinctions. 

 The general upper ground colour of the Common 

 British Snipe is deep brownish-black, and this is 

 varied by the light wood-brown edges of the fea- 

 thers, which are so distributed in many parts as to 

 run in lines. The colour of the crown is divided by 

 a central pale line produced in this manner ; from 

 the nostrils, over each eye, another broad line 

 stretches, and from the gape to the eye there is a 

 blackish-brown streak of uninterrupted colour ; on 

 the back of the neck, from the centres of the fea- 

 thers only being dark, an irregularly varied mixture 

 is produced ; but upon the back scapulars and long 

 tertials, the feathers are edged with a broad margin 

 of clear wood-brown, which runs in lines along the 

 back ; the lower part of the back, when the long 

 tertials are laid aside, is nearly black, each feather 

 tipped with white, producing altogether a distinctly 



