388 BIRDS OF DUMFRIESSHIRE 
I thought it an extra large one. He told me it was called 
the large snipe ; and it had sixteen taU-feathers, and a 
shorter bill than the Common Snipe. The bird was plucked, 
cooked and eaten." I subsequently learned that this 
specimen was shot below Craigdarroch Farm (Sanquhar) 
on November 6th, 1901. This is the only record of the 
occurrence of the Great Snipe in Dumfriesshire, which is at all 
satisfactory ; doubtless from its similarity to the Common 
Snipe the bird may have sometimes passed unnoticed, but 
our three species of snipe can be readily distmguished by 
the number of their tail-feathers, which in the Great are 
sixteen, in the Common fourteen, and in the Jack Snipe 
twelve. 
A snipe, which may have been a Great Snipe, frequented 
a marsh near Bierholm (Keir) for some days in the winter 
of 1889-1890. It appeared to be larger, more heavy m its 
flight and certainly more solitary in its habits, than a 
Common Snipe. A specimen is reported to have been got in 
Glencairn parish in 1889,* but Mr. John Corrie, writing on 
the subject to Mr. R. Service in 1890, says :— " I have so 
far been unable to procure the specimen, and can therefore 
only say in a general way that my information as to its 
occurrence may be considered trustworthy." Mr. P. A. 
Pasley-Dirom writes me from Mount Annan : " In January, 
1895 when curling, a snipe, which may have belonged to 
this species, alighted on the pond in a very exhausted con- 
dition and was captured by one of the players." I am 
informed by Dr. J. W. Martin that a snipe " the size of a 
Partridge and solitary in its habits " was seen in some 
marshes near Irongray Station in September, 1907^ Mr J. 
Bartholomew writes me that a gamekeeper named Campbell 
told him he had once shot a very large snipe in winter 
near Moffat, but he could not say whether it was a Great 
^""itls impossible to say whether any of the above records 
refer to the present species or not, and it only remams to 
* Trans. D. and O. Nat. Hist. Soc, February 6th, 1890. 
