SCULurACID.E — THE SXll'K FAMILY — SCOLOPAX. 181 



marks, on each side of the rusty lilack-spotted area. Rump lighter ciniiainon-rust}', narrowly 

 barred with dusky ; upper tail-eoverts largely tipped with light gi'ay. Tail-leathers black, ser- 

 rated along the outer edge with rusty, and widely tipped with light gray. Forehead and anterior 

 part of the crown, brownish gray ; posterior part of the crown and whole occiput, black, crossed 

 by four transverse narrow bands of light rusty, or ochraceous — two through the black, the other 

 two bounding it anteriorly and posteriorly. A wide loral stripe of blackish brown, running from 

 the rictus to the eye. Chin white. Lower parts in general pale fulvous grayish (nearly white 

 medially), marked with irregular trans\-erse bars of dark brown. Quills dusky, their outer weljs 

 marked with triangular spots of light cinnamon, arranged so as to form transverse bauds ; outer 

 web i)f exterior quill widely edged with puie wliile. Bill and feet light horn-culor, the former 

 blackish at the end. Downy Youmj : (.leneral hue delicate rusty ochraceous, the upper surface 

 marked with large blotch-like areas of deep rusty, these being arranged as follows : an isolated, 

 somewhat wedge-shaped, spot occnjiyiug the middle of the forehead ; a longitudinal stripe down 

 the middle of the rump ; a longitudinal patcli covering the occiput and nape, and sendriig out two 

 lateral branches, the first from the upper part to the eye, the second from the lower part across the 

 neck, where continued, more or less interruptedly, across the jugulum ; a dark chestnut (nearly 

 black) stripe from the bill to the eye. The other blotches covering the back, part of the wings, 

 and the anal region. 



Wing, nearly 8.00 ; culmen, aliout 3.00-3.25; tarsus, \SM ; middle toe, 1.30. 



The European Wootlcock is of occasional and aceideutal occurreuce in Xorth 

 America, and its apiDearance quite possibly is more frequent than we are aware of. 

 It is referred to, in one instance, in the " Ibis,"' as having been included in the New- 

 foundland collection of mounted birds in the Exposition of 1867. 



In Lewis's "American Sportsman " (p. 158), under the heading "Woodcock," refer- 

 ence is made in a footnote to a specimen of a Woodcock sent, about 1860, to Mr. G. 

 D. Wetherill, which weighed fourteen ounces. When received, however, it was too 

 far gone to be preserved ; but it was, without much doubt, a bird of this species. 

 Mr. George N. Lawrence cites another similar instance, where a friend of his shot, 

 near Newport, I\. I., a large Woodcock, which weighed fourteen ounces ; unfortu- 

 nately it was not preserved. The fact tliat our Woodcock rarely reaches and never 

 exceeds nine ounces, while the usual weight of the European is fourteen, naturally 

 suggests that in both instances the specimens were examples of the rustiruhi. 



We are not, however, restricted to probabilities merely for our evidence of the 

 actual occurrence of this species within our limits. Mr. Lawrence has in his collec- 

 tion the skin of a European Woodcock purchased in the Washington Market of New 

 York, Dec. 6, 18.")9. It had been broitglit there with a lot of Quail, on board the boat 

 from Shrewsbury, N. J. 



This species appears to be widely distributed over Europe and the western portions 

 of Asia. It resorts in sitmmer to northern regions for jjurposes of reproduction, and 

 in its migrations visits a wide extent of territory. 



A few breed in Great Britain, in various parts of the islands, l)ut a large proportion 

 seen there are n:figrants from more northern regions. They breed throughout Den- 

 mark, Norway, Sweden, Lapland, and Northern Russia, arriving in Scandinavia at 

 the latter end of March or the beginning of April, when they are found on the coast 

 in considerable immbers, but usually depart for the interior on the prevalence of 

 westerly winds. They are common in Western Lajiland beyond the Arctic Circle, 

 and are generally and widely dispersed ; but are nowhere numerous. The pine-forests 

 are their places of resort in summer. They are not found in Southern Germany in 

 the summer, and breed no farther south than Silesia, aud thence northward. 



This is a celebrated game-bird in Europe, and especially in Great Britain aud Ire- 

 laud, where, in their fall migrations, the Woodcock arrive in great numbers, and are 



