THE LONG-BEAK. 203 



and in the central valley ; but those swamps are in many 

 instances so concealed by trees, and so extended and difficult 

 of passage, that the examination of them is no easy matter. 



THE LONG-BEAK (Macrorctmplius). 



Only one species of this genus is known as a British bird, 

 the brown long-beak (Macroramphus griseus), and it has been 

 popularly described as a snipe, the brown snipe of authors. 

 It is not a snipe, however, neither is it a tringa ; it is some- 

 thing intermediate ; and though as a British bird it is a 

 mere straggler, of which a specimen cannot be confidently 

 looked for in a year, yet it is important, as showing the 

 beautiful gradations that may be traced among the feathered 

 tribes. 



The long-beak has in shape the body of a tringa, but 

 partly the markings of a snipe, and the feet are not of quite 

 so wading a character as those of the snipes. The bill, like 

 that of the snipes, is sentient at the tip, where it is enlarged, 

 but it is more slender and less depressed than that of the 

 woodcock, the species of snipe which it most nearly resembles 

 in character and habits. 



The bird is about ten inches long, eighteen in the stretch 

 of the wings, and weighs between three and four ounces. 

 In summer, the crown, nape, back, and scapulars, are black, 

 mottled with rust -colour and yellowish white of various 

 shades. The wings are olive brown, with white centres and 

 margins to the secondary quill, and a white shaft to the first 

 primary. The tail, consisting of twelve feathers, white, 

 thickly spotted with black. Sides of the head yellowish 

 white, mottled with small black spots ; throat and breast 

 reddish buff; sides white with black bars ; vent and under 

 tail-coverts the same ; all the rest of the under part white ; 

 feet dull yellowish green ; bill dusky black at the tip, bluish 

 at the base ; irides deep dusky. The female is paler in the 



