974 1 Mr. Selby's Account of Two Rare British Birds. 



colour ; at the posterior angle of the eye, a streak of darker brown. 

 Forehead, white, the shafts of some of the feathers brown ; auriculars, 

 light chesnut brown, with darker shafts. The rest of the head, throat, 

 and neck, white tinged with cream yellow, some of the feathers hav- 

 ing a dark streak down their centres. Back and wing coverts, with the 

 basal half of the feathers, pure white ; the exposed or visible part, am- 

 ber brown, with paler margins. Greater quills, black, barred with white 

 towards the base ; their extreme tips, also white. Tail, hair brown, 

 with four bars of a deeper colour, the intermediate spaces also irregu- 

 larly barred with dark hair brown ; the tips of the feathers white- 

 Breast and under plumage, cream white, with lanceolate streaks of 

 dark brown, largest upon the abdomen and thighs. Legs, short and 

 strong, saffron yellow ; the claws but little hooked, and black. 



The other is a figure of the Scolopax Sabini, contrasted with that of 

 the common species, and taken from a specimen that was shot at But- 

 terwell, near Morpeth, on the 15th of February, 1S32, and kindly sent 

 to me by Mr. John Jackson, of that town, in the fresh state. This is 

 the third instance only upon record of the capture of this rare and 

 curiously marked species. The first having been killed in Queen's 

 County, Ireland, and which, fortunately for science, fell into the hands 

 of Mr. Vigors, who described it as a new species, in the Transactions 

 of the Linnean Society, vol. xiv. ; the other was taken a year or two 

 afterwards upon the Medway, near to Rochester, in Kent. In the co- 

 lours and disposition of the plumage, the present individual accords in 

 every particular with the two just mentioned, possessing the same deep 

 saturated plumage, and agreeing with them in the relative proportions 

 of its various parts. In size it nearly equals the common Snipe, but is 

 thicker and rounder in form, and its legs considerably shorter in pro- 

 portion. The colours are also so disposed, and the form of the feathers 

 of the back and scapulars are such, as to discountenance any idea of its 

 being a variety of the Common Snipe, and equally so of our other ac- 

 knowledged species, the Scolopax major and 5". Gallinula. The follow- 

 ing is a description taken previous to dissection : — Length from the tip 

 of the bill to the end of the tail, ten inches and a quarter ; length of 



