134 BRITISH BIRDS. 



THE RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 



(Scolopax novcboraccnsis* Gm. Linn.) 



MONTAGU says, "the weight of this species is 

 seven ounces and three quarters; length fifteen 

 inches; bill three inches long, a little reflected, and 

 of a dusky colour, except at the base of the under 

 mandible, which is pale; irides dusky; orbits 

 white; crown of the head dusky, streaked with 

 ferruginous; sides of the head, chin, throat, fore 

 part of the neck, breast, belly, and sides bright 

 bay, palest on the chin, and with a few solitary 

 white feathers on the belly ; round the vent and 

 under tail coverts the feathers are white, tipped 

 with bay; upper part of the neck behind ferru- 

 ginous, slightly marked down the shafts with 

 dusky; lower part of the hind neck, upper part of 

 the back and scapulars dusky, spotted with ferru- 

 ginous on the margin of the feathers ; lower part of 

 the back and rump white, with oblong dusky spots 

 down the shafts: upper tail coverts barred dusky 

 and ferruginous, becoming white at the base of the 

 feathers; prime quills dusky black, the first six 

 mottled with brown and white on the inner webs, 

 towards the base; the secondaries cinereous, mar- 

 gined and spotted with white; the shafts of all 

 more or less white; greater coverts of the prime 

 quills black; from the fifth tipped with white; 

 those on the secondaries cinereous, the inner webs 



* Temminck identifies this as the Brown Snipe (Scolopax Grisea) 

 in the summer plumage. 



