RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 



341 



EED-BBEASTED SNIPE. {Scolopax noveboracensis.) 



PLATE LVIIL— Fig. 1. 



Arct. Zool. p. 464, No. 368.— Pete's Museum, No. 3932. 

 MACRORHAMPUS GBISEUS.—Lhacb..* 



Macrorhampus griseus, Steph. Cont. Sh. Zool. vol. xii. p. 61. — Scolopax grisea, 

 Flem. Br. Zool. p. 106. — Bonap. Cat. p. 27.— Le Becassine Grise, Scolopax 

 leucopncea, VieiU. Gal. des Ols. pi. 241. — Limosa scolopacea, Say's Exped. to 

 Rocky Mount, i. p. 170, 171, note.— Brown Snipe, Mont. Orn. Diet. — Becassine 

 Ponctuee, Temm. Man. ii. p. 679. — Brown Snipe, Selby's Must. Br. Orn. pi. 

 24, fig. 2. 



This bird has a considerable resemblance to the common 

 snipe, not only in its general form, size, and colours, but 

 likewise in the excellence of its flesh, which is in high esti- 

 mation. It differs, however, greatly from the common snipe 



* This bird will stand in the rank of a sub-genus. It was first in- 

 dicated by Leach, in the Catalogue to the British Museum, under the 

 above title. It is one of those beautifully connecting forms which it is 

 impossible to place without giving a situation to themselves, and in- 

 timately connects the snipes with Totanus and Limosa. The bill is 

 truly that of Scolopax, while the plumage and changes ally it to the 

 other genera ; from these blending characters it had been termed Limosa 

 scolopacea by Say, who gave the characters of the form without apply- 

 ing the name. He has the following observations in the work above 

 quoted : — 



" Several specimens were shot in a pond near the Bowyer Creek. 

 Corresponds with the genus Scolopax, Cuvier, in having the dorsal 

 grooves at the tip of the upper mandible, and in having this part dilated 

 and rugose ; but the eye is not large, nor is it placed far back upon the 

 head ; which two latter characters, combined with its more elevated 

 and slender figure, and the circumstance of the thighs being denudated 

 of feathers high above the knee, and the exterior toe being united to 

 the middle toe by a membrane which extends as far as the first joint, 

 and the toes being also margined, combine to distinguish this species 

 from those of the genus to which the form and characters of its bill 

 would refer it, and approach it more closely to Limosa. In one speci- 

 men, the two exterior primaries on each wing were light brown, but 

 the quills were white. It may, perhaps, with propriety be considered 

 as the type of a new genus, and, under the following characters, be 

 placed between the genera Scolopax and Limosa. Bill, longer than the 



