WOODCOCK AND SNIPE. _^,. 499 



while in the medium-sized Horsfield's woodcock {8. saturata) of Java and New 

 Guinea, only the outer webs of the primaries are barred. In the same group with 

 the woodcocks Mr. Seebohm includes six southern species which he terms semi- 

 woodcocks, five of which are from South America, while the last (S. aucldandica) 

 is from New Zealand. Possessing the longitudinal head-markings of the two 



WOODCOCK IN COVERT. 



groups of snipe, these birds differ from all the latter either by having not more 

 than sixteen tail-feathers, or by the tibia being feathered almost or completely to 

 the joint. Essentially nocturnal and solitary in its habits, the woodcock passes the 

 day skulking among the thick shade of woods, from whence it issues forth at 

 evening to search for food in the marshes or along the banks of streams. Worms, 

 of which it will consume a prodigious quantity, form its chief nutriment; 

 and it appears that it ascertains the position of these creatures by plunging 



