SCOLOPACID^. 407 



partially indigestible matter. This bird would, how- 

 ever, appear occasionally to feed on other things 

 than worms and insects, as attention is called, in a 

 note in the ' Zoologist,' to the fact of the stomach of 

 one containing nothing but a few seeds and vege- 

 table matter.* 



This species does not appear to breed in England, 

 but in places where it does breed it is said to choose 

 the same sort of locality for its nest that the Com- 

 mon Snipe does. The nest itself does not appear 

 to be a very elaborate structure, but merely a round 

 spot pressed down in some long grass, and tolerably 

 well lined with some dry grass and fragments of 

 herbage. 



I have taken Yarr ell's description of this bird, as 

 I have not one in my own collection to describe 

 from : it is rather longer than the descriptions in 

 some of the other books, but is more accurate, and 

 as there seems to be another species of Snipe some- 

 what resembling both this and the Common Snipe, 

 which I shall have to mention in my notes of 

 that bird, I think it very necessary to be as 

 particular as I can in my descriptions of all the^ 

 three. " In the Great Snipe the beak is dark brown 

 at the end, pale yellow-brown at the base; irides 

 dark brown ; from the base of the beak to the eye a 

 dark brown streak ; over the eye and over the ear- 



* < Zoologist' for 1864, p. 8890, 



