620 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — LIMICOL^. 



Kansas, Nebraska, Indian Terr, and Texas ; no extralimital record ; migratory, but breeds 

 throughout its range ; winters in the s<jiith. This is tJie game bird, after all, say what you 

 please of Snipe, Quail, or Gruuse. Eggs more rotund than those of most small waders, cor- 

 responding to tiie plump form of the bird, averaging 1.50 X 1-lS ; a short broad one 1.40 X 1.20 ; 

 along narrow one 1..55 X 1-15 ; brcjwnish clay-color, uKjre huffy or more grayish, with number- 

 less chocolate -brown surface-markings and stone-gray sliell-spots, none very large or bold ; size 

 and intensity of markings generally corresponding to depth of ground color; usually laid in 

 April, earlier in tlie south. The woodcock has many curious actions during the mating seascjn. 

 The young are sometimes I'emoved from dang<'r by tlie parent, cai'rying them with tlie feet. 

 Very erratic and capricious in its movements. 



330. SCO'LOPAX. (Gr, a-KoKona^, skolopax, Lat. saAopax, name of this very bird.) Eukopean 

 Woodcock. No outer prinuiries shortened or peculiar, the 1st naiTowed somewlrat on inner 

 web near end; 1st and 2d longest, 3d little shoi-ter, 4th much sliorter ; wings long, com- 

 paratively, the point of the wing extending beyond the inner secondaries, which only fold about 

 to end of 5th quill. Generic charactei'S, excepting those of the wing, much as in Philohela; 

 same style (if bill and feet and configuration of body and liead; plumage similarly variegated 

 above, but below barred crosswise throughout ; size much superior. Of all the suipe-like birds 

 of this country, loosely called " Scolopax" this straggler from Europe is the only one to which 

 the name is strictly applicalile. 

 606. S. rusti'cula. (Lat. r«sftcifs, a rustic; r/fsh'c/f/n, a little countryman.) European WoOD- 

 coc!K. Gockbird : Colors above harnxiniously blended and varied black, brmvn, chestnut, and 

 yellowish-gray; imdci' piirts browiiish-wliitc, regularly wavy-barred througliout with dark 

 brown. A dusky stripe tVom liill to eye. Top and back of head brownish -black and brown, 

 divided by tliree or four cross-liars of lirowuish-wliite and brown. Each feather of upper parts 

 chestnut and black, iu variegation, the black usually forming a large subtermiual spot. Yel- 

 lowish-gray tending to foruj a scapular stripe on each side of the hack. Quills and coverts of 

 wing blackish, pretty reguhirly varied "\\-ith dark chestnut bars, on the larger I'luills this 

 chestnut paler and reduced to marginal indentations ; outer web of first primary plain whitish. 

 Upper tail-coverts ricli chestuut, little varied witli lilack, with pale tips. Tail-feathers black, 

 with angular chestnut indentations of outer webs; their tips gray from above, viewed from 

 below glistening sih'ery-white. Under parts brownish-white, more or less suffused with 

 cliestnut-brown on the breast, tlie regular dusky barring only giving way on the whitish throat, 

 elianging to lengthwise streaks on the under tail-coverts. Hen ; Unmistakahly similar — sub- 

 stantially the same ; grayer above, much of the russet mottling of the ^ replaced by hoary- 

 gray. A much " lietter bird " than our woodcock; a thinl larger; weight 12-15 oz. Over a 

 foot long ; wing seven inches or more ; tail 3.50 ; bill only about as long as in our woodcock ; 

 tarsus 1.25 ; middle toe and claw more. I describe this species with particularity, and sports- 

 men who get a bird of this sort will do well to report the fact at once. It was firmally 

 introduced to our fauna in the original edition of the " Key." There are several authentic 

 instances of its capture in this country, and it is unquestitinably entitled to such place, as a 

 straggler from Europe, of wliich country it is the common woodcock. See Lewis, American 

 Sportsmen, ed. of 1868, p. 1()9, footnote (New Jersey) ; Lawrence, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y., 

 1866, p. 292 (Rhode Island and New Jersey) ; Baird, Am. Journ. Sci., xli, 1866, p. 25 (New- 

 foundland) ; Cones, Am. Nat., x, 1876, p. 372 (Virginia). 



231. CrALLINA'GO. (Lat. (jallinn, a hen, whence fjallinago, like virago hom vir.) True Snipe. 

 Bill much longer than head, perfectly straight, soft to the end, where it is somewhat widened, 

 grooved on top, vascular and sensitive, in the dried state pitted ; lateral grooves running more 

 than half-way to tip; gape narrow, not reaching beyond base of culmen. Ear under eye. 

 Tibife featliered not c|uite to the joint. Tarsus a little shorter than middle toe and claw; toes 

 perfectly free, cleft to the base, slender and not fringed. Wings rather short and rounded (for 



