116 GRALLATORES. SCOLOPAX. SNIPE. 



ing been killed in the counties of Kent, Wiltshire, and Lan- 

 cashire. In Northumberland several instances have come 

 under my own knowledge within the last eight or ten years, 

 .and the specimen from which the figure in Plate XXIII. is 

 taken, was killed in October 1822 on some boggy ground 

 within a short distance of Twizell. In the year 1826, being 

 a very dry and warm season, they seem to have visited us 

 in more than usual numbers, as several individuals were 

 killed in different marshes ; and I am informed that not less 

 than five or six were shot on one morass not far from Sedge- 

 field, in the county of Durham. In general appearance the 

 Great Snipe bears a strong resemblance to the common spe- 

 cies (Scolopax Gallinago), and in all probability this resem- 

 blance has frequently caused the former to have been con- 

 founded with the latter, or at any rate to have been consi- 

 dered merely as a large variety of it. Its bulk is always 

 much greater, and its Weight averages about eight ounces 

 and a half. The bill being smaller and shorter in propor- 

 tion to its size, the tarsi thicker and not so long, and the 

 belly and abdomen always barred with brown and white, 

 afford never-failing indications of the species. When flushed, 

 the Great Snipe generally utters a cry in some degree simi- 

 lar to that of the common species, but shorter and hoarser ; 

 its flight is not so rapid, nor does it perform the same twist- 

 ing evolutions when first forced upon wing, but moves in a 

 direct manner, not unlike the Woodcock. Like the rest of 

 Food, the genus, it feeds upon worms and insects, obtained by bor- 

 ing the marshy ground and mud with its bill, which shows 

 in its post-mortem examination the same roughness near the 

 tip that distinguishes all the true Snipes and Woodcocks, 

 and which, as I have before observed, is caused by the dry- 

 ing and consequent contraction of the nervous papillae dis- 

 tributed over its surface. This species is spread over a great 

 part of Continental Europe, particularly towards the east 

 and over the north of Asia. In most countries it is migra- 

 tory, retiring during summer to the vast marshes of the 

 north. TEMMTNCK mentions having received a specimen 



