234 PEAIEIE AND FOEEST. 



Narborough, of the enormous weight of 27 ozs. I do not 

 here give all the minutiae of the English bird, for it is not 

 of it that I wish to speak, but only sufficiently to show 

 that there is a marked difference between it and its name- 

 sake of the American continent, whose peculiarities I will, 

 so far as memory serves me, attempt to describe, for the 

 benefit of the young sportsman. Length, from point of 

 bill to end of tail, 11 to 12 inches; across the wings, 9j 

 inches; weight from 6 to 7 ozs. The females generally 

 exceed these measurements by about 1-10. In shape they 

 much resemble the Wilson snipe (Scolopax Wilsoni], only 

 they are more round and compact, the eye larger and more 

 prominent, and wings shorter but fuller. In colour the 

 bill is a yellowish brown ; legs and feet of a pinkish flesh 

 colour ; claws dark olive or brown ; iris, brown ; forehead, 

 dirty yellow, with two black bars across the back of the 

 head, and two narrow ones in front on the neck, a finely- 

 pencilled dark line running the whole length of the head, 

 the eye dividing it into two parts, with another similar 

 line underneath, and marking the termination of the lower 

 mandible. Three broad bands of brownish-black pass 

 lengthways and parallel from the shoulder to the tail, 

 divided from one another by a narrow line of bluish grey. 

 The stomach and breast are of a warm fawn colour, be- 

 coming deeper in shade as it approaches the tail and 

 termination of the wings. 



This description, I am aware, is far from perfect, or such 

 as the naturalist would demand ; still, I think it is suffi- 

 ciently clear to enable the novice to distinguish what he 

 has got when the first American woodcock falls to his 



