150 THE WADING BIBBS OF NORTH CHINA. 



The common sand-piper is the little bird known out here as the 

 snippet. The latter is a purely sporting term used loosely for many 

 small snipe-like birds. Another bird that often receives this name is 

 the red-necked stint (Tringa ruficollis), a small snipe-like bird that 

 often deceives the beginner as to its identity. This is the little fellow 

 that goes about in small flocks of ten or a dozen, and settles on the flat 

 muddy stretches where there is no cover. 



Another member of the same genus is the dunlin (T. americana), 

 which, however, has a longer beak, is darker in colour, and slightly 

 larger. It keeps more to the sea-shore, and is seldom met. with 

 inland. 



The black-tailed godwit (Limosa melanura) is another of the wadera, 

 which passes through during the migratory season. This is a bird 

 about the size of the whimbrel, but having a long straight beak. It 

 is of fawin-grey and brown colour with black flight feathers, white 

 axillaries and a black tail, the base of which is white. The legs are 

 long and the central toe has the nail curved upward and serrated. The 

 feathers of the head and neck are tinged with chestnut. A second smaller 

 species occurs, which is barred on the breast and back, and has very 

 much more chestnut on the head and neck. 



The descriptions of all these birds refer only to the adult male. 

 As it frequently happens that the females and young have differently 

 coloured plumage, the sportsman will often secure birds that do not 

 answer to any of these. He must then arrive at an identification by 

 a process of elimination, though without reference to colour. He will 

 have to go more by shape, length of leg and beak, and so on. 



Lastly we have the woodcock and snipe. 1 have already dealt 

 with the latter in a separate paper. 



My experiences with the woodcock, (Scolapax rusticffla) has not 

 been great, in fact I have run across it in only two places, namely, in 

 the wooded area west of Tai-yuan Fu in Shansi, and in the mountains 

 west of Kwei-hua-chi'eng further north in the same province. In both 

 of these districts it is fairly plentiful in spring and autumn, but rather 

 shy and difficult to shoot. 



It is occasionally shot round Tientsin by local sportsmen, and I 

 have seen it for sale in the French market. 



