Genus SCOLOFAX or SNIPES and WOODCOCKS. 



Type SCOLOPAX RUSTICOLA. 



Scolopax of Linnseus (1766). — The birds comprising the 

 present genus are characterised by having the bill twice as long 

 as the tarsus, and the toes cleft to the base. The wings are long, 

 and generally pointed ; the tail is rounded, and the number of 

 feathers varies considerably. The tarsus is scutellated anteriorly 

 and posteriorly ; the feathering of the tibia is also subject to some 

 variation. The bill is long and straight, swollen laterally, and 

 softened towards the tip, rugose ; nostrils lateral, basal, covered 

 by a membrane. Three toes in front, one behind small and 

 elevated. Summer and winter plumage nearly alike. 



This genus is composed of twenty-seven species and subspecies, 

 and is cosmopolitan in its distribution. Four species are British, 

 two of which breed in, and two are visitors on migration to, our 

 islands. 



The Snipes are dwellers in marshes and woodland swamps. 

 They are birds of rapid, powerful, and well-sustained if somewhat 

 erratic flight, and run and walk with ease. They are more or less 

 nocturnal in their habits. Their notes are loud, some of them not 

 unmusical. They subsist on worms, insects and larvae, etc. They 

 make slight nests on the ground, and their pyriform eggs are four 

 in number and spotted. They are monogamous. They are 

 almost solitary, never gregarious, save perhaps during migration 

 or courtship. Their flesh is highly esteemed for the table. 



