GREAT SNIPE. 



225 



note than that sibilous one, from which the name is derived, and which 

 is more frequently heard about dusk than at any other time. 



The young-, when disturbed, immediately quit the nest, although only 

 half-fledged, trusting- to their instinctive power of concealment ; it is a 

 reg-ular summer visitant with us, and its peculiar cry is seldom heard 

 later than July or Aug-ust. 



GREAT AWK.-A name for the Awk. 



GREAT BLACK WOODPECKER (Pirns martins, Linnjeus.) 

 This bird has been occasionally found in Britain as a straggler. Pul- 

 teney mentions two or three having been shot in Dorsetshire, and Lord 

 Stanley shot one in Lancashire. Another is said to have been shot in 

 1805, in Battersea fields, on the trunk of an old willow. This species 

 measures eig-hteen inches in length, and twenty-nine in breadth ; it 

 weighs about ten ounces ; the plumage black, with the exception of the 

 crown, which is of a bright red ; the wing consists of nineteen quills, 

 and the tail of ten feathers. It was unknown to Willughby as a British 

 bird, and we have even now no evidence of its breeding, or performing 

 its annual visit to this country. 



GREAT BLACK-HEADED GULL.— A name for the Laughing 

 Gull. 



GREAT BLACK-BACKED GULL.— A name for the Cobb. 

 GREAT CINEREOUS SHRIKE.— A name for the Butcher Bird. 

 GREAT COOT.— A name for the Coot. 

 GREAT CRESTED GREBE.— A name for the Loon. 

 GREAT EARED OWL.— A name for the Eagle Owl. 

 GREAT HORNED OWL.— A name for the Eagle Owl. 

 GREAT OWL.— A name for the Eagle Owl. 

 GREAT SNIPE (Scolopax major, Linnjeus.) 



Scolopax major, Gmel. Syst. 2. p. 661. — Ind. Orn. 2. p. 714. 4 — Scolopax palu- 

 dosa, Ind. Orn. 2 p. 714 — Gmel. Syst. p. 661 — Scolopax Gallina, Sepp. Vbg. 3. 

 1. 127. — Scolopax media , Ger. Orn. 4. p. 446. — Scolopax atra, lb. 450. — Becasse 



des Savanes, Buff. 7. p. 481 Savanah Woodcock, Lath. Syn. 5. p. 132 Great 



Snipe, Br. Zool. 2. No. 188.— Arct. Zool. 2. p. 470. B. — Lath. Syn. 5. p. 133. 

 4.— Lewins Br. Birds, 4. t. 157.— Wale. Syn. 2. t. 137.— Pult. Cat. Dorset. 



p. 14 Lath. Supp. 2. p. 308.,— Rural Sports, p. 444. — Bewick's Br. Birds, 2. 



p. 67 Flem. Br. Anim. p. 105. 



This bird weighs about eight ounces ; length sixteen inches. The 



bill is four inches long, like that of the woodcock. Crown of the head 



black, divided down the middle by a pale stripe ; above and beneath 



each eye is another stripe of the same ; the upper parts of the body 



very like the common snipe ; the under parts white ; on the neck, 



breast, and sides, the feathers are edged with dusky ; quills dusky ; 



tail reddish brown or rust -colour, barred with black ; the two middle 



feathers plain ; legs black. 



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