SNIPES. 51 



GEEAT SNIPE. Gallinago major (Gmelin). 



Visits this country regularly every autumn, and 

 always earlier than the Common Snipe. Instances of 

 its occurrence in spring are rare. It appears to seek 

 drier situations than does the Common Snipe: e.g., 

 one shot by the Earl of Haddington in a dry grass- 

 field near Mellerstain, Berwickshire, in the autumn 

 of 1865 (Turnbull, 'Birds of East Lothian,' p. 43); 

 two on high ground, Malham, Yorkshire, 6th Sept. 

 1862 (Christy Horsfall, 'Zoologist,' 1862, p. 8196); 

 one in a piece of potatoes, on dry sand, near Milton 

 Pewsey, Wilts, 23rd Sept. 1868 ( c The Field,' 3rd Oct. 

 1868); one in some heather on Salisbury Plain, 24th 

 Sept. 1868 (Powell, 'Zoologist,' 1868, p. 1461); and 

 other examples might be adduced. 



It is worthy of note that a Great Snipe, shot at 

 Camelford, Cornwall, in November 1868, and ex- 

 amined by Mr. E. H. Rodd of Penzance*, had eighteen 

 instead of sixteen feathers in the tail. 



COMMON SNIPE. Gallinago media, Leach. 



A regular winter visitant, but many pairs annually 

 remain to breed in suitable localities. With reference 

 to the large ruddy variety for which Mr. Gould 

 has suggested the name G. russata, see his ' Birds of 

 Great Britain ; ' Stevenson's ' Birds of Norfolk,' vol. ii. 

 p. 331; Rodd, 'Zoologist,' 1855, p. 4704; Gatcombe, 

 ' Zoologist,' 1862, p. 7938; Blake Knox, ' Zoologist,' 



* See ' Zoologist,' 1868, p. 1482. 



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