206 GRALL.4S. 



Two species are found in the country, periodically or 

 occasionally, but one only remains to breed, at least in 

 any considerable number. From the manner in which 

 their food is procured, they are of course driven southward 

 as the ground begins to freeze, and the time and extent 

 of their migration depend on the time and intensity of the 

 frost. 



THE COMMON SNIPE (Scolopax gollinacjo). 



The common snipe is about twelve inches in length, of 

 which the bill occupies three ; the extent of its wings is 

 about fourteen inches, and its weight about four ounces. 

 Bill, brown at the tip, yellowish in the middle, and reddish 

 toward the base ; smooth in the living bird, but becoming 

 furrowed and dull in the colour after death. Crown of the 

 head, dark brown, with a yellowish white or straw-coloured 

 line down the middle, and an obscure one at each side 

 over the eye. A brown line from the gape to the eye, 

 continued by a row of spots down the side of the neck. 

 The back black, with a gloss of bronze colour, and the 

 scapulars striped on the one web and barred on the other 

 with yellow. Wings dusky, the quills tipped with white, 

 and some parts of the wing barred with brown. Tail-coverts 

 reddish brown ; and the tail feathers, so far as they appear 

 from under the coverts, the same ; irregularly barred with 

 black. The chin and front of the neck are yellowish white, 

 barred with brown. The belly is white. The feet, which 

 are naked above the tarsal joints, are greenish ash. It is 

 not, however, possible to describe the colours of the snipe in 

 words, or to fail in knowing the bird after it has been once 

 seen. 



In winter, the common snipes are very numerous in those 

 low marshy places which yield them food and concealment j 

 and the native numbers are generally recruited by supplies 



