Laweence on the, Greater Long-Beak. 155 



normal individual variation."* He then gives the measurements of 

 nine specimens shot out of the same flock, the mininura length 

 being 10.25, grading to a maximum of 12.50, and in the bill from 

 2.20 to 3.25. From this we see the variation in length and length 

 of bill is about one inch, which, he says, " is not much more than 

 is frequently foimd in examples of Ereiinetes p^isillus and Numenuis 

 lo7tgirostris." This may be so, but with the last two birds the 

 parallel stops here, for the*notes, plumage, and habits of J^. p^isillus 

 and JV. longirostris are the same, notwithstanding how they may 

 differ in other particulars, while with the M. scolojxiceus and 

 M. grisens there is not only a variation in size and length of bill 

 between the two birds, but the notes, plumage, and habits are dif- 

 ferent, at least so far as I have observed, and still, with due respect 

 for what Dr. Cones says on the subject, in all my Bay Snipe shoot- 

 ing I have yet to see the flock of Red-breasted Snipe from which 

 any nine individuals could be shot showing the great variation in 

 measurement he gives, at least on Long Island, although in the 

 West it may he so. From this I surmise that perhaps the Red- 

 breasted Snipe in the West is M. scolopaceus, and that the M. griseus 

 is merely a straggler, while on the Atlantic Coast it is just the con- 

 trary, the If. scolopaceus being the straggler; particularly as Mr. 

 George N. Lawrence states that all specimens supposed to be 

 M. griseus which he has examined from Mexico have turned out 

 to be M. scolopaceus. The bill of this bird varies from 2.50 to 3.25, 

 while that of M. griseus seldom if ever reaches 2.50 in length. 



The M. scolopiaceus not only exceeds the other in length of bill, 

 etc., but the whole general appeai-ance of the bird is very noticeably 

 ditt'erent, and it can be easily distinguished from M. griseus some 

 distance off. 



Mr. George N. Lawrence says : " In all three of my specimens 

 which are in full summer plumage, the breast and entire abdomen 

 is of a uniform rather pale rufous without spots or bars, but having 

 the sides of the breast transversely barred with black. In an 

 example from Texas, the breast is barred in the same manner as the 

 ones from Cuba."t 



In all of the seventeen specimens of M. scolopaceus I have exam- 

 ined, this character of the plumage is strongly marked, with still 



* Birds of the Northwest, p. 477. 



t Notes on Cuban Bh-ds, with Descriptions of New Species. Annals of 

 Lyceum of Nat. History of N. Y., Vol. VII, p. 272. 



