SNIPE. GRALLATORES. SCOLOPAX. 115 



Quills dusky ; the outer webs having triangular bars of 

 chestnut-brown. First quill-feather in the males im- 

 perfectly barred near the tip, or immaculate ; in the fe- 

 males generally barred throughout the whole length. 

 Under parts greyish-white, tinged more or less with yel- 

 lowish-brown, and transversely barred with hair-brown. 

 Vent and under tail-coverts yellowish-white, with trian- 

 gular centres of black. Legs livid or flesh-red, tinged 

 with grey. Lower part of the tibia feathered. 



GREAT SNIPE. 



SCOLOPAX MAJOR, Gmel. 

 PLATE XXIII. FIG. 2. 



Scolopax major, Gmel. Syst. 1. 661. Lath. Ind. Orn. 2. 714. 4. Flem. Br. 



Anim. 1. 105. sp. 146. 



Gallinago major, Steph. Shaw's ZooL 12. 51. pi. 8. 

 Grande ou Double Becassine, Temm. Man. d'Ornith. 2. 675. 

 Great Snipe, Br. ZooL 2. No. 188 Arct. Zool. 2. 470. B Lath. Syn. 5. 



1 33. 4 Mont. Ornith. Diet. 2. and Sup Bewick's Br. Birds, 2. 67 



Shaw's Zool. 12. 51. pi. 8. 



PROVINCIAL Solitary Snipe. 



THE Great, or, as it is frequently called, the Solitary Snipe, Occasion- 

 is known to us as an occasional visitant, from a few stragglers tant. 

 being now and then driven upon our coasts during their pe- 

 riodical migrations, the immediate direction of their latitu- 

 dinal flight being much to the east of the longitude of the 

 British Islands. Such instances, as far as I have been able 

 to ascertain (and all those which have fallen under my own 

 observation), have occurred during the autumnal or equato- 

 rial movements of these birds, when, quitting the colder re- 

 gions of the northern parts of Europe, where they breed and 

 pass the summer months, they seek more genial climates, 

 and in which, from the mildness of the winter and absence 

 of severe frost, they are certain of obtaining a constant sup- 

 ply of food. MONTAGU mentions birds of this species hav- 



