206 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Family CHAEADBIID^E. Genus MACRORHAMPHUS. 



Subfamily TOTANIN&. 



RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 



MACEOEHAMPHUS GEISEUS (Gmelin). 



Scolopax grisea, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 658 (1788). 



Macrorhamphus griseus (Gmel.), Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 275 (1852) ; Dresser, B. 



Eur. viii. p. 187, pi. 571 (1878) ; Yarrell, Brit. B. ed 4, iii. p. 357 (1883) ; Lilford, 



Col. Pig. Brit. B. pt. xxviii. (1894) ; Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iii. p. 306 (1896) ; 



Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 394 (1896). 

 Ereunetes griseus (Gmel.), Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 168 (1885) ; Dixon, Nests 



and Eggs Non-indig. Brit. B. p. 257 (1894) : Seebohm, Col. Fig. Eggs Brit. B. 



p. 143, pi. 41 (1896). 



Geographical distribution. British: The recorded occurrences on 

 which the claim of the Eed-breasted Snipe to rank as "British " is based are as 

 follows: England: Devonshire (three examples), October, 1801, 1837, and 

 "previous to 1857"; Cumberland (one example), September, 1835; Norfolk 

 (three examples), October, 1836, October, 1840, October, 1845 ; Middlesex (two 

 examples), one " previous to 1866 " ; Scilly Isles (one example), October, 1857 ; 

 Lincolnshire (one example), August, 1882; Lancashire (one example). Scotland : 

 Fifeshire (one example), September, 1867 ; Lanarkshire (one example), "previous 

 to 1870." Ireland : Queen's Co. (one example), November, 1893 ; Tipperary (one 

 example), November, 1893. It is by no means improbable that some of these 

 examples may belong to the nearly allied Asiatic species about to be mentioned ; 

 it is also impossible to say, without examining each specimen, whether all or 

 part belong to the eastern or western form of the American species. It is 

 said, however, that the two Irish examples did actually belong to the western 

 race. Foreign : Nearctic region except extreme north-west ; Northern Neotropical 

 region in winter. It occurs accidentally in Greenland and in Continental Europe. 

 It breeds throughout the Arctic regions of North America from the Eockies in the 

 west to Baffin Bay in the east, and south to Hudson Bay, and probably the 

 Great Lakes in about lat. 44. It passes by inland routes, as well as along the 

 Atlantic coasts, and abnormally over the Bermudas on migration, and winters in 

 the West Indies, Central America, and South America, as far south as Bahia in 

 Brazil. 



