SCOLOPAX. 211 



Subfamily ScOLOPAClN^. 



Genus SCOLOPAX Linnmis, Syst. Nat. 1 758, p. 145. 

 Type : S. rusticola Linn. 



8cdlapax=(TKo\67ra^, a kind of Snipe mentioned by Aristotle. 



Scolopax rusticola. Woodcock. 



Scolopax rusticola Limueus, Syst. Nat. 1758, p. 146 : 



Sweden. 



Scolopax rusticula Linn. ; B. 0. IT. List, 1st ed. 1883, p. 165 ; 

 Sharps, Cat. Birds B. M. xxiv. 1896, p. 671 ; Saunders, 

 Manual, 2nd ed. 1899, p. 569. 



Rusticola (probably more correctly Rusticula)=& little Heath-cock in Pliny, 

 H. N. X. 38, 54 ; rustlculus=a, little countryman, in Cicero, Sed. 38, 82. 

 Dimunitive of rusticiis =of or belonging to the country, rus. LimiEeus seems 

 to have mistaken the word ; cf. H. T. Wharton, ' Ibis," 1879, p. 453. 



Distribution in the British Islands. — A Resident, widely 

 distributed, breeding in most wooded districts and apparently 

 in increasing numbers. Also a Bird of Passage and a Winter 

 Visitor arriving in small numbers from the end of September, 

 but chiefly between the middle of October and November, 

 and returning in the middle of March. Its numbers and 

 movements are greatly influenced by weather. 



General Distribution. — The Woodcock breeds throughout 

 the greater part of Europe and in northern and central Asia, 

 ranging north in Scandinavia to the Arctic Circle and thence 

 across Russia and Siberia, south of about 64° N. latitude, to 

 the Sea of Okhotsk ; southwards to the Pyrenees, Transyl- 

 vania, the Balkans, Caucasus, Tian-shan, Himalaya above 

 10,000 feet, and Japan. It is resident in the Azores, the 

 Canary Islands, and Madeira. In winter it visits the Medi- 

 ierranean basin and north-west Africa, southwards, at least, 

 to the Atlas Mountains, Egypt, and across southern Asia 



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