SCOLOPACIDJE. 409 



green and even of a light drab colour. " The 

 females are larger than the males. The males lighter 

 in colour above and below the dark stripe behind 

 the base of the beak, and the breast is less covered 

 with the dark half- circular markings ; the white 

 spots at the ends of the wing-coverts are rather 

 larger and more conspicuous from their purer white 

 colour. Young birds in their first autumn have 

 short beaks, and fewer, if any, white outside tail- 

 feathers : these are probably obtained at their first 

 moult, as this species is sometimes described as 

 being without any white outside tail-feathers, and at 

 others with as many as five on each outside." 



The eggs are said to be of a yellow olive-brown, 

 spotted with two shades of reddish brown. 



COMMON SNIPE, Scolopax Gallinago. The Com- 

 mon or Full Snipe is tolerably numerous in most 

 parts of the county, and in some localities which are 

 well suited to its nature it is at times very abundant, 

 but is rather eccentric in its movements, as on one 

 day one may have very excellent sport and on the 

 next may go over the same ground 4 and not see a 

 bird. It is on the whole a migratory species, but, 

 as with the Woodcock, a few pairs remain every year 

 to breed on the Quantock, Brendon and other hills, 

 and probably also on some parts of the marsh, as 

 the Rev. Murray A. Mathew mentions * having seen a 



* ' Zoologist' for 1865, p. 9703. 



