sabine's snipe. 49 



GRALLA TORES. SCOLOPA ClD/F.. 



PLATE CXCIL 



SABINE'S SNIPE 



SCOLOPAX SABINI. 



This rare species has occurred in the British islands in 

 only three or four instances that we are acquainted with, from 

 one of which specimens we figured our Plate. We are un- 

 able to say where it breeds, or what countries it inhabits, 

 since no continental ornithologist even mentions this bird, 

 nor is there a specimen on record in any continental collec- 

 tion. 



The first mention of the bird in question was made by 

 Mr. Vigors, to whom a specimen was forwarded the same day 

 it had been shot in Queen's County, Ireland, in August, 

 1822, and who has described it in the fourteenth volume of 

 the " Transactions of the Linnsean Society."" Mr. Vigors 

 named the bird in honour of the chairman of the Zoological 

 Society of that period. 



The measurements of the Sabine's Snipe are nine inches 

 two lines in length ; the beak two inches and a half; the 

 tarsus one inch three lines ; the wing, from the carpus to the 

 tip, five inches. The entire colouring of the upper plumage 

 is reddish dusky, from the forehead to the rump, the under 

 the same, but paler in tint. The rump is more greyish dusky, 

 as also the vent ; some of the wing-coverts, and the sides of 



