822 GALLINAGO SCOLOPACLNA. 



Adult female (Wales). Length 10-3 inches; wing 53; tail 2-4; tarsus 1*3; middle toe without claw 1-2; bill to 

 gape 2-55; expanse 17'0. Weight 3§ oz. 



This Snipe has 14 tail-feathers, and the lateral ones are not rigid, and but little narrower than the adjacent. 



Obs. This species so closely resembles the last (to which I have given precedence as being the ordinary Snipe of the 

 island), that it is only necessary to point out its distinguishing characteristics as follows : — 



Winter plumage. Differs from the Pin -tailed Snipe in having a slenderer and, on the whole, a longer bill and shorter 

 legs and feet ; in wanting the narrow, rigid " pin "-feathers on each side of the tail ; in having the axillaries barred 

 with paler, narrower, and much more distant bars ; in having the under wing-coverts along the edge of the wing 

 much less barred, and the greater secondary series more or less uniform white, the brown bars being chiefly con- 

 fined to the base ; and in the conspicuous white tips to the secondaries. The lateral tail-feathers are white, with a 

 black bar near the tip, and a broader band, chiefly on the inner web, near the base. The buff margins of the 

 scapular feathers are perhaps, as a rule, broader; but this character is uncertain, and chiefly applies in summer 

 plumage. 



Summer plumage. This is characterized merely by a brighter and more glossy plumage. An example from the 

 Tenesay (Arctic circle), collected by Mr. Seebohm, now before me, measures as follows : — wing 5-1 inches, tail 2-3, 

 tarsus 1-25, bill at front 2'6 : has the occipital and loral stripes and the chin whiter than in winter specimens, and 

 the black feathers of the back and scapulars glossed with green and more richly variegated with rufous-buff than 

 in winter specimens ; the broad lateral margins of the scapulars are almost white, instead of buff, which has the 

 effect of setting oS the black portions more clearly. 



Young (nestling, in down : Brit. Mus.). Above deep ferruginous, mingled with black, and mottled on the head and 

 back with white ; a band of black and rufous passes from one eye to the other across the forehead, at the base of 

 the bill, above which is a rufous-buff band surmounted by a black patch ; the cheeks are white, below which, and 

 on the ear-coverts, there is a black patch ; chin and throat buff, crossed by two black bauds, beneath the lower of 

 which the fore neck is rufeseeut ; lower parts paler; rump brownish, mottled with white. Bill to gape 0-58 inch. 



The nestling Snipe differs from the Woodcock in its darker ground-colour and white mottling, besides which the bare 

 tibia would serve to identify it at once. 



In an example about ten days old the black markings predominate over the rufous, the head is boldly marked with the 

 white down, and the feathers have appeared on the hind neck and scapular regions, and are black, barred with 

 rufous and edged with buff ; the wing-coverts are likewise black, tipped with white. Bill 1*2 inch at gape. 



These remarks are based on a specimen in the national collection. 



Immature birds in the first autumn closely resemble adults; but the buff markings are not so rich, the chest is not tinged 

 so much with this colour, the tips of the wing-coverts are whiter, and the axillaries are more barred, nearly 

 approaching those of the "Pin-tail" in character; but the ivhite interspaces are broader than the dark bars, and the 

 reverse is the case in the last-named species. The inner web of the lateral tail-feather is darker than in the adult. 

 There is little if any difference in the length of the bill. 



Obs. Although the " pin "-feathers in the tail of the last species constitute its chief distinguishing characteristic, yet, 

 even to the eye of a moderately close observer, the above-indicated differences (concerning which there has been 

 some controversy in ' Stray Feathers ') must surely be at once apparent. The present species never has the axil- 

 laries and under wing barred like the Pin-tail ; and, further, its long and proportionately slender bill cannot fail to 

 distinguish the Common Snipe from its Indian ally. It has been said to average lighter in weight ; and, as I have 

 stated in the preceding article, it appears to do so. The weight of a Snipe, however, depends so much on its 

 condition that it is unsafe to rely upon it as a distinguishing feature. Mr. Parker (Str. Feath. 1874, p. 335) 

 gives the average weight as 3 oz. 3 drms. Mr. Cripps notes the weight of eleven males from Furreedpore as 3"75 

 to 5-12 oz., the last-named being excessive ; of the three females he records it as 3 - 5 to 5 - oz. A large British 

 series weighed by me, and for me by friends, range between 2| and 4^ oz., the average being a little short of 4 oz. 



The so-called Sabine's Snipe, G. sabinii, is an interesting variety of the present, sometimes procured in England. It 

 was originally considered to be a distinct species. Its general appearance is brown ; beneath brownish rufous, 

 with bands of brown taking a concentric form on the lower parts ; head dark uniform brown, without the mesial 

 stripe; the buff margins on the scapulars wanting. An example from Queen's County, Ireland, in the national 

 collection, measures — wing 5-2 inches, tarsus T25, bill at front 2-55. 



