COMMON SNIPE. 241 



SCOLOPAX GALLINAGO. 

 COMMON SNIPE. 



(PLATE 28.) 



Scolopax gallinago, JSriss. Orn. v. p. 298 (1760) ; Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 244 (1766) ; 

 et auctorum plurimorum Gmelin, Montagu, Temminck, Naumann, Gould, 

 Middetidorff, Schrenck, Radde, Salvin, Godman, Wright, Allen, Swinhoe, Danfordj 

 Harvie-Broicn, Anderson, &c. 



Scolopax coslestis, Frenzel, Beschr. Vog. u. Eier Wittenb. p. 58 (1801). 



Scolopax sakhalina, Vieill. N. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. iii. p. 369 (1817). 



Scolopax brehinii, Kaup, Isis, 1823, p. 1147. 



Scolopax sabiuei, Vigors, Trans. Linn. Soc. xiv. p. 557, pi. 21 (1825). 



Telmatias gallinago (Linn.}, Jjoie, Isis, 1826, p. 979. 



Pelorychus brehinii (Kaup), { ^ ... , 



./ ... ,,,. r ^l Kaup, Naturl. Syst. pp. 119, 121 (1829). 



Enalius sabmi ( Vigors), \ 



Gallinago uniclavus, Hodgs. Journ. As. Soc. Beng. vi. p. 492 (1837). 

 Gallinago scolopacinus, Bonap. Comp. List B. Eur. 8f N. Amer. p. 52 (1838). 

 Scolopax peregrina (Brehm), Temm. Man. d'Orn. iv. p. 435 (1840). 

 .\scalopax sabini ( Vig^, I ^ ^ ^^ ^ m 



Ascalopax gallinago (Linn.), I 

 Gallinago russata, Gould, B. of Great Brit., Introd. p. cxviii (1873). 



Telmatias faeroeensis, brehmii, saptentrionalis, stagnatilis, gallinago, peregrina, 

 (sabini), robusta, salicaria, petenyi, lacustris, brachypus, Brehm. 



Galliuago brehmii, scolopacinus, sabini, japouica, nilotica, burka, lamottii, pyguisea, 

 picta, segyptiaca, Bonaparte. 



The Common Snipe is generally distributed throughout the British 

 Islands, breeding wherever swampy ground, even of limited extent, is 

 to be found. It is commoner in Scotland than in England, but most 

 numerous in Ireland, where the extensive bogs provide it with the haunts 

 it loves. It breeds in the Orkneys and Shetlands and in most of the 

 Hebrides. It is a resident in our islands, but its numbers are considerably 

 increased in autumn by migrants from the continent. 



The Common Snipe has a very extensive range, indeed it may be regarded 

 as a circumpolar bird, though the Nearctic form differs in some respects 

 from ours. This form is probably only subspecitically distinct from the 

 Common Snipe, and should bear the name of Scolopax gallinago wilsoni. 

 It is not known to which form the Greenland birds belong, nor are the 

 ranges of the two races satisfactorily determined in East Siberia. It is 

 supposed that the Common Snipe has only fourteen, but the American 

 Snipe sixteen tail-feathers, the outermost of which are darker and more 

 broadly barred with brown than in the Old- World species. It is said that 



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