276 WOODCOCK AND SNIPE 



and a terminal band of white. The relative widths of the black and yellow bands 

 vary considerably. The breast and abdomen are white; the flanks white or 

 buffish white, and more or less distinctly barred with dark grey. The axillaries 

 are white, barred black. The under tail-coverts are pale brown, more or less dis- 

 tinctly barred with dull black. The iris is brown, the beak brown, darker at the 

 tip, and the legs and toes are greenish olive. The juvenile (fledgling) differs from 

 the adult in lacking the longitudinal stripes along the back, which is black relieved 

 by elliptical lines of dull buffish white and dark chestnut. The long inner secon- 

 daries are barred alternately with black and dark chestnut. The forehead is pale 

 brown, obscurely barred with black, and the flanks are similarly coloured. The 

 young in down is of a rich dark chestnut, with two more or less distinct longitudinal 

 stripes in black and silver. Above and below the eye is a line of white and black. 

 The forehead is transversely barred with black as in the adult woodcock, the nape 

 is similarly barred, while the under parts are of a dark chestnut inclining to grey. 

 [w. P. P.] 



2. Distribution. In England and Wales this species is widely distributed, 

 but as its breeding-places are confined to marshes and swampy fields, it is necessarily 

 local. It is, however, more plentiful in Scotland, and breeds in considerable numbers 

 in the Hebrides, Orkneys, and Shetlands. It is also common and generally dis- 

 tributed in Ireland. Outside the British Isles it breeds in the Faeroes and Iceland, 

 while on the Continent its range extends from the extreme north of Norway and 

 Russia southward to the Alpine chain and some districts of North Italy, but not 

 to the Iberian Peninsula. Eastward it is recorded as nesting in Montenegro, and 

 sparingly in Austro-Hungary, while in Russia it is said to breed in the Caucasus. 

 In Asia its northern limit is about 66 in West Siberia and 70 in the eastern side, 

 and its southern range extends to Turkestan and Yarkand. East Siberian birds 

 have been separated by Buturlin, and North America is inhabited by an allied race. 

 The winter range of the common-snipe is extensive : it reaches the Atlantic Isles 

 (Azores, Madeira, and Canaries) and Senegambia on the west coast of Africa. Some 

 winter in the Mediterranean region and the Red Sea district, and from thence 

 through Persia, India, Ceylon, Burma, and the Andamans to China, Formosa, the 

 Philippines, Moluccas, and Japan. It has also occurred casually in Greenland 

 and the Bermudas. [F. c. R. J.] 



3. Migration. A resident and a winter visitor. The immigration takes 

 place chiefly in October and November. During the winter the birds frequently 

 shift ground owing to the weather, but some of them remain in the country till 



