OP THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 297 



Genus LIMNOCRYPTES, or Jack Snipes. 



Type, LIMNOCEYPTES GALLINULA. 



Limnocryptes, of Kaup (1829). — The birds comprising the present genus 

 are characterised by having the culmen longer than the metatarsus (twice its 

 length), and the long innermost secondaries equal in length to the primaries. 

 The most important distinction between the Jack Snipes and the Snipes is an 

 osteological one, the latter birds having two notches only in the posterior margin 

 of the sternum, whilst the former have four notches, the normal number in the 

 present family. The Jack Snipes further differ from the Snipes in having twelve 

 tail feathers only, instead of fourteen and upwards. In most, if not all, other 

 respects the Jack Snipes resemble the birds in the preceding genus. 



This genus is composed of a single species only, which is distributed over the 

 northern portions of the Palaearctic region in summer, drawing southwards in 

 autumn and winter, when it visits the Oriental region. It is a common winter 

 migrant to the British Islands. 



The Jack Snipe closely resembles the Snipes in its habits and economy, 

 which will be fully dealt with in the following chapter. 



