GEEAT SNIPE, 383 



Tail rounded, sixteen feathers, of which the fourth 

 and fifth side feathers are pure white on the outer 

 edge ; the shaft of the outermost wing feather white, 

 all the under parts spotted and barred with black; 

 length 11^ in.; beak 2-f- in.; tarsus 1^ in.; but the 

 male is proportionably smaller. The young birds, in 

 the first autumn, have shorter beaks, and fewer, if any, 

 white outside tail feathers. These are probably at- 

 tained at the first moult, for this species is often 

 described as being without any white outer tail feathers, 

 and at other times with as many as five or six on each 

 side of the tail. It is larger and paler in colour than 

 the common snipe, but the beak is shorter; upper 

 parts glossy black-brown, with rusty coloured spots 

 and pale cross bands over the wing. General weight 

 nine ounces. 



It is supposed that in Sweden we have two sorts of 

 double snipe, the one larger than the other. I always thought 

 the same, but not so much on account of the size, as of 

 the difference in the tail feathers, which may, after all, 

 be dependent only on age. 



The double snipe, in the summer, appears to be sparingly 

 dispersed over the whole of Scandinavia, but is, I think, 

 a very local bird. I never took the eggs in South Werm- 

 land, although I feel certain that they breed here ; a friend 

 of mine, however, took the nest with four eggs, in June, 

 1864, near Gothenburg. I have received the eggs from 

 North Wermland, and it is said to be common up the 

 Alten, near the North Cape. The greatest breeding 

 locality is near Upsala in Upland, where hundreds are 

 shot every spring on their playing grounds, for they have 

 a regular " lek " or play in certain meadows, like the black 

 grouse, when they are pairing. 



The egg is large, pyriform; colours bold and clearly 

 defined ; light clay ground, covered with large blotches of 

 three shades of red-brown crowded at the large end. The eggs 

 of all the snipes have precisely the same character, and 

 nothing can distinguish them but the size. 



