Supplementary Notice of British Snipes. 



29 



which, I understood, two guineas were immediately given by a 

 collector in the neighbourhood. 



The next species is the *Sc61opax Sabinz of Mr. Vigors, the 

 secretary to the Zoological Society {Jig, 3.) ; the first record 

 of which bird 



appeared in the ^S^ ^ x*^ 3 



fourteenth vo- 

 lume of the 

 Transactions of 

 the Linnean So- 

 ciety, with a 

 figure nearly, if 

 not quite, of the 

 natural size. 



The length of 

 the bill in this 

 species is 2-^-^ 



inches ; the whole length of this bird 9t% inches. The general 

 colour of the plumage is dark brown, spotted and barred with 

 lighter chestnut brown. The first example of this species, which 

 appears not to have been previously known to ornithologists, 

 was shot in August, 1822, in the Queen's County, in Ireland. 

 This specimen is in the Museum of the Zoological Society, in 

 Bruton Street. A second example was shot on the banks of 

 the Medway, near Rochester, in October, 1824, and is now in 

 the collection of Mr. Dunning of Maidstone. A third speci- 

 men has been lately mounted by a London bird-preserver; 

 and during the last winter, a fourth example of this species 

 was shot by a nobleman upon his own estate in Hampshire. 



There is a peculiarity in the beak of all the species of the 

 genus ^Scolopax which deserves notice. If the upper mandible 

 be macerated in water for a few days, the skin or cuticle 

 may be readily peeled off, and the bones thus laid bare ex- 

 ^4^^^^^ hibit an ap- 

 ^^^^g^g^^§^ pearance of 



which ^g, 4". 

 is a magnified 



representation from the upper mandible of the common snipe 

 (iScolopax Gallinago). The surface presents numerous elon- 

 gated hexagonal cells, which afford at the same time protection 

 and space for the expansion of minute portions of nerves 

 supplied to them by two branches of the fifth pair, and the 

 end of the bill becomes, in consequence of this provision, a 

 delicate organ of touch to assist these birds when boring for 

 their food in soft ground; this enlarged extremity of the 

 beak, which it will be recollected is a generic distinction, pos- 



•^Pipl^^Si 



