io8 British Birds, with their Nests and Eggs. 



Morocco, Egypt, and Persia, reacliing in winter the Transvaal and Natal, but 

 decidedly rare on tlie west side of Africa. 



Description (male and female, Dovrefjeld, June, 1882). It will be sufficient to 

 point out tliat this species bears a general resemblance to G. ccelestis, with the following 

 differences :— it is larger and more " cob-built," but with shorter bill and legs ; the 

 under parts are transversely barred throughout from bill to tail; the secondaries 

 and median coverts are conspicuously tipped with white; the tail feathers are 

 sixteen in number, instead of fourteen, and the two outermost ones on either side 

 (sometimes three) have the terminal half white. Also the outer web of the first 

 primary has only the narrowest possible outer margin of buff; in the Common 

 Snipe it is entirely white, except at the tip. Length 10^- 11^ inches, closed 

 wing 51. 



Young birds (more usually met with in Britain than adults) have the outer 

 tail feathers buffy-white at the ends, instead of pure white — never mottled, as in 

 the Common Snipe, and the white tips on the wing are less noticeable. 



The nestling resembles that of the Common Snipe (vide Saunders) but is 

 much less ruddy above; and (teste Dresser) the white-tipped outer tail feathers 

 begin to shew themselves at a very early age. 



There is no difference in plumage between the sexes at any age. 



The nest (which I have found on the Dovrefjeld and in Russian Lapland) is 

 placed on the top of a tussock in a marsh, often — I should say usually — amongst 

 thick willow bushes a yard or more high. The nest is a mere hollow in the 

 grassy top of the tussock, with a little grass, or moss, or a few dead leaves, as a 

 lining, but probably only what grew or lay there before the bird made, or deepened, 

 the nest hollow. Eggs, normally four, decidedly larger than those of the Common 

 Snipe, and darker coloured, sometimes of an almost olive-green ground. [This 

 makes them difficult to separate from those of the Ruff, and intending purchasers 

 will do well to exercise caution in the case of eggs purporting to come from 

 Denmark and Holland, where both species breed together]. Ground colour grey 

 buff, or, as stated, olive buff, with purple-grey and brown-black spots and blotches, 

 usuall}' larger and bolder than those on Ruff's eggs ; length about if inches by 

 It's- I J. There is an interesting account of the nesting, and of the sitting bird 

 covering its back with moss, in the "Ibis" (1861, p. 87), by the Messrs. Godman. 

 Both sexes inciibate, but the only one I have shot off the eggs was a male. The 

 eggs are laid about the first week in June — one in Russian Lapland had eggs 

 slightly incubated on June 24th, so they will probably be a week or ten days later 

 in the extreme north. 



As to habits, the reader is referred to an interesting paper, by Professor Collett, 



