SNIPE. 221 



SNIPE. {Scolopax gallinago f) 



PLATE XLVII.— Fig. 1. 



La Beccassine, Briss. v. 298, pi. 26, fig. 1. — Lath. Syn. iii. 134. 

 SCOLOPAX WILSONII.—TmimwcK;* 



Scolopax Wilsonii, Temm. PI. Col., Note to description of S. gigantea — Bonap. 

 Synop. p. 330. — Monog. del Gen. Scolopax Osserv. Sulla, 2d edit., Pel. 

 Reg. Anim. p. 120. —Scolopax Brehmii, Bonap. Olserv. on Nomencl. 



This bird is well known to our sportsmen ; and, if not the 

 same, has a very near resemblance to the common snipe of 

 Europe. It is usually known by the name of the English 



* Five or six species of snipes are so much allied in the colours and 

 general marking of the plumage, that a very narrow examination is 

 often necessary for their determination ; from this reason, the birds from 

 America, Asia, and the Indian continent were considered as identical, 

 and a much wider geographical range allotted to the European snipe 

 than it was generally entitled to. "Wilson had some doubts of this bird 

 being the same with the European snipe, as he marks his name with a 

 query, and observed the difference in the number of tail-feathers. 

 Bonaparte observed the difference as soon as his attention was turned 

 to the ornithology of America ; and, about the same time, a new snipe 

 was described by Mr Kaup, in the Isis, as found occasionally in cold 

 winters in the north of Germany. The Prince of Musignano, on com- 

 paring this description with the American species, from their very close 

 alliance, judged them identical ; while, in the meantime, Temminck, 

 comparing both together, perceived distinctions, and dedicated that of 

 America to her own ornithologist, an opinion which Bonaparte after- 

 wards confirmed and adopted in his monograph of that genus. 



Mr Swainson has introduced a snipe, which he thinks is distinct, 

 killed on the Rocky Moirntains, and named by him S. Drummondii ; 

 and another, killed on the Columbia, which he calls S. Douglasii. The 

 first " is common in the Fur Countries up to lat. 65°, and is also found 

 in the recesses of the Rocky Mountains. It is intermediate in size, 

 between the S. major and gallinago ; it has a much longer bill than the 

 latter, and two more tail-feathers. Its head is divided by a pale central 

 stripe, as in S. gallinula and major ; its dorsal plumage more distinctly 

 striped than that of the latter ; and the outer tail-feather is a quarter 

 of an inch shorter than that of S. Douglasii." The latter, in Mr 

 Swainson's collection, has the tail of sixteen feathers, not narrowed, all 

 banded with ferruginous except the outer pair, which are paler ; total 

 length, eleven and a half inches. 



