620 
SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — LIMICOLjE. 
Kansas, Nebraska, Indian Terr, and Texas ; no extralimital record ; migratory, but breeds 
throughout its range ; Avinters in the south. This is the game bird, after all, say what you 
please of Snipe, Quail, or Grouse. Eggs more rotund than those of most small waders, cor- 
responding to the plump form of the bird, averaging 1.50 X 1-18 ; a short broad one 1.40 X 1-20 ; 
a long narrow one 1.55 X 1-15 ; brownish clay-color, more buflFy or more grayish, with number- 
less chocolate-brown surface-markings and stone-gray shell-spots, none very large or bold ; size 
and intensity of markings generally corresponding to depth of ground color ; usually laid in 
April, earlier in the south. The woodcock has many curious actions during the mating season. 
The young are sometimes removed from danger by the parent, carrying them with the feet. 
Yery erratic and capricious in its movements. 
230. SCO'LOPAX. (Gr. (TKoXorra^, sholopax, Lat. scolopax, name of this very bird.) European 
Woodcock. No outer primaries shortened or peculiar, the 1st narrowed somewhat on inner 
web near end; 1st and 2d longest, 3d little shorter, 4th much shorter; wings long, com- 
paratively, the point of the wing extending beyond the inner secondaries, which only fold about 
to end of 5th quill. Generic characters, excepting those of the wing, much as in Philohela ; 
same style of bill and feet and configuration of body and head ; plumage similarly variegated 
above, but below barred crosswise thrt>ughout ; size much superior. Of all the snipe-like birds 
of this country, loosely called ScoJopax,^^ this straggler from Europe is the only one to which 
the name is strictly applicable. 
006. S. rusti'cula. (Lat. rusticus, a rustic ; rusticula, a little countryman.) European Wood- 
cock. Cockbird : Colors above harmoniously blended and varied black, brown, chestnut, and 
yellowish-gray; under parts brownish- white, regularly wavy-barred throughout with dark 
brown. A dusky stripe from bill to eye. Top and back of head brownish-black and brown, 
divided by three or four cross-bars of brownish -white and brown. Each feather of upper parts 
chestnut and black, in variegation, the black usually forming a large subterminal spot. Yel- 
lowish-gray tending to form a scapular stripe on each side of the back. Quills and coverts of 
wing blackish, pretty regularly varied with dark chestnut bars, on the larger quills this 
chestnut paler and reduced to marginal indentations ; outer web of first primary plain whitish. 
Upper tail-coverts rich chestiuit, little varied with black, with pale tips. Tail-feathers black, 
with angular chestnut indentations of outer webs ; their tips gray from above, viewed from 
below glistening silvery-white. Under parts brownish-white, more or less suffused with 
chestnut-brcjwn on the breast, the regular dusky barring only giving way on the whitish throat, 
changing to lengthwise streaks on the under tail-coverts. Hen: Unmistakably similar — sub- 
stantially the same ; grayer above, much of the russet mottling of the ^ replaced by hoary- 
gray. A much ^'better bird "than our woodcock; a third larger; weight 12-15 oz. Over a 
foot long ; wing seven inches or more ; tail 3.50 ; bill only about as long as in our woodcock ; 
tarsus 1.25 ; middle toe and claw more. I describe this species with particularity, and sports- 
men who get a bird of this sort will do well to report the fact at once. It was formally 
introduced to our fauna in the original edition of the Key." There are several authentic 
instances of its capture in this country, and it is unquestionably entitled to such place, as a 
straggler from Europe, of which country it is the common woodcock. See Lewis, American 
Sportsmen, ed. of 1868, p. 169, footnote (New Jersey) ; Lawrence, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. N. Y., 
1866, p. 292 (Rhode Island and New Jersey) ; Baird, Am. Journ. Sci., xli, 1866, p. 25 (New- 
foundland) ; Coues, Am. Nat., x, 1876, p. 372 (Virginia). 
231. GrALLINA'GO. (Lat. (jallina, a hen, whence gaUina/jo, like virago from vir.) True Snipe. 
Bill much longer than head, perfectly straight, soft to the end, where it is somewhat widened, 
grooved on top, vascular and sensitive, in the dried state pitted ; lateral grooves running more 
than half-way to tip ; gape narrow, not reaching beyond base of culmen. Ear under eye. 
Tibiae feathered not quite to the joint. Tarsus a little shorter than middle toe and claw ; toes 
perfectly free, cleft to the base, slender and not fringed. Wings rather short and rounded (for 
