Family CHARADRIID^. Genus Scolopax. 



Subfamily Scolopacin.w.. 



COMMON SNIPE. 



SCOLOPAX QhlAA^h&O—Linnceus. 



Geographical Distribution. — British: Common resident, 

 breeding wherever suitable localities occur ; most numerous in 

 Scotland, and especially so in Ireland. More abundant in winter 

 than in summer, its numbers being largely increased during the 

 cold season by arrivals from higher latitudes. Foreign : Palae- 

 arctic region; Oriental region, and northern confines of Ethiopian 

 region in winter. Breeds throughout Northern and Central 

 Europe (including Iceland and the Faroes) north to the Arctic 

 Ocean, and south to the Alps, and South Russia. Eastwards it 

 breeds throughout Siberia, south of lat. 70", southwards to the 

 lofty heights of Turkestan and South-east Mongolia. The northern 

 birds pass the intermediate country on migration, and winter in 

 the basin of the Mediterranean and North Africa (south to about 

 lat. 10° on both east and west, and including the Azores, Madeira, 

 and the Canaries) ; in Persia, India, Ceylon, Burma, China, 

 Formosa, and the Philippine Islands. Once recorded from the 

 Malay peninsula, and is said to have visited South Greenland. 



Allied Forms. — Scolopax gallinago wilsoni, northern Nearctic 

 region in summer ; southern Nearctic, and extreme north of Neo- 

 tropical regions, in winter. Breeds throughout North America 

 from the Atlantic to the Pacific, as far north as the Arctic Circle, 

 and as far south as the northern United States to about lat. 40°. 

 Winters in the Bermudas, Mexico, Central America, the West 

 Indies, and the northern limits of South America. The New 

 World representative of the Common Snipe, only subspecifically 

 distinct, and completely intergrading with its Old World repre- 



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