OP THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 293 



Family CHAEADEIID^. Genus Gallinago. 



Subfamily Scolopaginm. 



COMMON SNIPE. 



GALLINAGO SCOLOPACINA.— Bonaparte. 



Plate XXXI. 



Scolopax gallinago, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 244 (1766) ; Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 368 

 (1852) ; Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 241 (1885) ; Dixon, Nests and Eggs Brit. B. 

 p. 282 (1893) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. B. pt. xxxi. (1895) ; Seebohm, Col. Pig. 

 Eggs Brit. B. p. 163, pi. 40 (1896). 



Qallina£:o caelestis (Prenzel) ; Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 641, pis. 542, 643, fig. 1 (1880) ; 

 Yarrell, Brit. B. ed. 4, iii. p. 342 (1883). 



Gallinago gfallinago (Linn.) ; Sharpe, Handb. B. Gt. Brit. iii. p. 215 (1896) ; Sharpe, 

 Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 633 il896). 



Geographical distrVoVitlon.— British .- The Common Snipe is a 

 common resident in our islands, breeding wherever suitable localities occur ; most 

 numerous in Scotland, and especially so in Ireland. It is more abundant in 

 winter than in summer, its numbers being largely increased during the cold 

 season by arrivals from higher latitudes. Foreign : Palsearctic region ; Oriental 

 region and northern confines of Ethiopian region in winter. It breeds throughout 

 Northern and Central Europe (including Iceland and the Faroes) north to the 

 Arctic Ocean, and south to the Alps and South Eussia. 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, Burmah, China, Formosa, and the 

 Philippine Islands. It has once been recorded from the Malay Peninsula, and is 

 said to have visited South Greenland. 



Allied forms. — GalUnago wilsoni, northern Nearctic region in summer; 

 southern Nearctic and extreme north of Neotropical 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°. 

 It winters in Mexico, Central America, the West Indies, and the northern limits 

 of South America, and is an abnormal migrant to the Bermudas. The New 



