RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 



MACRORHAMPHUS GRISEUS {J. F. Gmelin). 



Scolopax grisea, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 658 (1788). 

 Macrorhamplius griseus, Macg. iv. p. 275 ; Yarr. ed. 4, iii. 

 p. 357; Dresser, viii. p. 187. 



This bird is an occasional and uncommon straggler 

 to our Islands from the other side of the Atlantic. The 

 first recorded occurrence in England took place in 

 Devonshire in October 1801, and was made known to 

 the public by Col. Montagu in his ' Ornithological 

 Dictionary.' About a dozen more occurrences are on 

 record with regard to England, two or three in Scotland ; 

 and the principal figure in the accompanying Plate 

 represents an Irish specimen, that was most obligingly 

 lent to me by its possessor, Mr. F. Coburn, who, in 

 the 'Zoologist' for February 1894, refers to it in the 

 following words : — " On October 11th, 1893, I received 

 from County Tipperary, Ireland, an adult female of the 

 Red-breasted Snipe {MacrorJiamphus griseus) changing 

 to winter plumage. Professor Newton, who has 

 examined this bird, gives its dimensions as — bill 2 "65, 

 tarsus 1*5, wing 6. It will be seen that these measure- 

 ments closely approach those of the supposed western 



