414 CHAKADRIID^ GALLINAGO 



of its length ; eye large and placed rather far back so that the ear 

 orifice is just below its hinder edge ; wings rather short, first and 

 second quills sub-equal, difference between the longest and shortest 

 primaries about two-thirds the length of the culmen ; tail rounded, 

 composed of from twelve to twenty-eight feathers (sixteen in South 

 African species), the outer ones usually narrowed; tarsus short, not 

 as long as the middle toe and claw, with transverse scutes before 

 and behind ; hind toe present ; anterior toes cleft to the base 

 without web ; sexes alike, no seasonal change of plumage. 



Out of some twenty species of Snipes spread all over the world 

 only two are found in South Africa one a migrant from the northern 

 hemisphere, and the other a resident. 



Key of the Species. 



A. The three outer tail-feathers pure white with- 



out spots or bars ....................................... G. major, p. 414. 



B. The three outer tail-feathers white, with obso- 



lete spots or bars ....................................... G. nigripennis, p. 416. 



751. Gallinago major. Double Snipe. 



Scolopax major, Gmel. Syst. Nat. i, p. 661 (1788) ; Seebohm, Geogr. 

 Distr. Charadr. p. 482, with fig. of tail (1898). 



Gallinago major, Gurney, Ibis, 1861, p. 134, 1864, p. 360, 1868, p. 261 

 [Natal] ; id. in Andersson's B. Damaral. p. 312 (1872) ; Ay res, Ibis, 

 1873, p. 283, 1877, p. 351, 1878, p. 411, 1880, p. 268, 1885, p. 348, 

 1886, p. 293 ; Dresser, B. Ear. viii, p. 631, pi. 541 (1876) ; Sliarpe, 

 ed. Layard's B. S. Afr. p. 678 (1884) ; id. Cat. B. M. xxiv, p. 626 

 (1896) ; Woodward Bros., Natal B. p. 188 (1899). 



Gallinago media,* Shelley, B. Afr. i, p. 192 (1896) ; Eciclienoiv, Vog- 

 Afr. i, p. 235 (1900). 



" Great or Solitary Snipe " of some authors. 



Description. Adult Male. Above mottled black and sandy-buff, 

 the crown black, with a median and two supra-loral and supra- 

 ocular streaks of buff; wing-coverts conspicuously tipped with 

 white; bastard wing, primary coverts and wing-quills black, the 

 two former and the secondaries with white tips ; rump and upper 

 tail-coverts sandy-buff, barred with dusky; sixteen tail-feathers, 

 centre ones bright rufous with black bases and a narrow sub- 

 terminal black and a terminal white tip, the white gradually 



* Gerini's name " media," adopted by some authors, is not admissible 

 under the laws of nomenclature. 



