342 



LIMlCOLsE, 



SCOLOPACID^. 



8COLOPACIDJR. 



GALLINAGO COELESTIS (Frenzel*). 



THE COMMON SNIPE. 



Scolopax gallinago. 



THE COMMON SNIPE may be truly characterized as in- 

 digenous to this country. It is known to breed in varying 

 numbers in almost every county in England and Wales in 

 which drainage has not abolished the localities suitable to 

 its habits ; and, as might be expected, it is comparatively 

 abundant in the marshes of Suffolk, Norfolk, and Lincoln- 

 shire. On the moorlands of the northern districts and up 

 to a considerable elevation in Scotland and Ireland, the 

 species is generally distributed and numerous during the 

 breeding- season. Still, the quantity produced in the whole 

 of the British Islands bears but a small proportion to the 



* Scolopax ccdestis, Frenzel, Beschr. der Vogel und ihrer Eier in der Gegend 

 ran Wittenberg, p. 58 (1801). 



