CHAEADKIID^ 



GALLINAGO 



415 



increasing till the four outer feathers on each side are white, except 

 for a few dark spots towards the bases of the feathers ; a dusky 

 loreal streak ; beneath the chin and centre of the abdomen are 

 white; the sides of the face and neck, the fore neck and breast 

 sandy-buff, streaked with brown ; the flanks and under tail-coverts 

 also sandy-buff but barred with brown ; axillaries and under wing- 

 coverts barred with black and white. 



Iris dark umber ; bill pale yellowish, dusky towards the tip ; 

 tarsus and feet light greenish-yellow. 



Length about ll'O ; wing 5-3 ; tail 20; culmen2-45; tarsus 1.-4 ; 

 weight 8 oz. (Trevelyan). A female is similar, wing 6'5 ; culmen 

 2-4 ; tarsus 1-37 ; weight 8 oz. (Ayres.) 



Pig. 133. — Head of Gallinago major, x 



The breeding plumage is rather brighter than the winter plumage ; 

 young birds are more rufous than the adults ; the white tips to the 

 wing-coverts are tinged with buff and the white outer tail-feathers 

 are barred with dusky-brown. 



Distribution. — The Double Snipe nests in Eastern and North- 

 eastern Europe and Northern Asia from Germany to the Yenesei, 

 while in the British Islands it is only a casual visitor. It passes 

 over South Europe and winters in Africa, where, however, it seems 

 to be confined to the eastern and southern portions of the con- 

 tinent, and has not hitherto been met with in the western tropical 

 districts. 



As the present species is frequently confused with the resident 

 Ethiopian Snipe it is difficult to give exact details, but the following 

 are recorded localities, and the bird is probably generally distributed, 

 though by no means so abundant as the other species : Cape Colony 



