COMMON SNIPE 
GALLINAGO GALLINAGO 
(Plate XXIV) 
ScoloPax gallinago, Linn., Syst. Nat., i, p. 244 (1766) ; Gould, Birds Europe, v, pi. 321, fig. 2 
(1837); Seebohm, Hist. Brit. Birds, iii, p. 241 (1885); Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. Birds, pt. xxxi 
(1895). 
Gallinago scolopacina, Bonap. ; Gould, Birds Great Brit., iv, pi. 79 (1863). 
Gallinago coelestis, Frenzel ; Dresser, Birds Europe, vii, p. 641, pis. 542-543 (1880); Hume and 
Marshall, Game Birds Ind., iii, p. 359, pi. (1880) ; Saunders, ed. Yarrell, Brit. Birds, iii, 
p. 342 (1883) ; id.. III. Man. Brit. Birds, p. 573 (1899). 
Gallinago gallinago, Oates, Man. Game Birds Ind., ii, p. 455 (1899) ; Sharpe, Cat. Birds 
Brit. Mus., xxiv, p. 633 (1896). 
Payne-Gallwey, in “Badminton Library,” Moor and Marsh, The Snipe, p. 134 (1886). 
Shaw & Ussher, in “Fwr, Feather and Fin Series,” Snipe and Woodcock, p. 3 (1904). 
To the Dark variety chiefly met with in the British Isles, and known as Sabine’s Snipe, 
the following are the principal references : — 
Scolopax sabinii. Vigors, Trans. Linn. Soc., XIV, p. 557, pi. (1825) ; Gould, Birds Europe, 
V, pi. 321, fig. 1 (1837) ; Lilford, Col. Fig. Brit. Birds, pt. xxvi (1893). 
Gallinago coelestis, var. sabinii, Barrett-Hamilton, Irish Nat., iv, p. 12 (1895). 
DULT Male and Female. — General colour above black, 
with a broad line of buif along each side of the back, 
/ formed by the outer edges of the long pointed dorsal 
feathers, which are also blotched with black ; lower 
g back brownish-black, barred with white ; rump and 
vL. tail-coverts tawny-buff, with blackish cross-bars, the 
longer coverts tipped with white; shoulder-feathers (scapulars) black, 
margined with buff, and irregularly barred with rufous. Quills blackish, 
the outer quill whitish along the outer web, the short outer secondaries, 
primary coverts and bastard wing black, tipped with white, the secon- 
daries conspicuously so, the long innermost secondaries dark smoky grey, 
barred with black and rufous-buff. Tail-feathers fourteen (occasionally six- 
teen) in number, with the terminal portion light chestnut tipped with white, 
separated by a black band, and the basal portion mostly black; outer pair 
regularly barred with blackish. (Fig. 1.) Crown of the head black, with a 
pale buff band down the middle, and wide buff-coloured eyebrow-stripes 
extending from the lores to the occiput; a broad black streak from the 
nostril to the eye; sides of the head whitish, with a dark streak across 
the ear-coverts; chin white, throat and chest sandy-brown, with blackish 
spots and bars, breast and abdomen pure white, sides conspicuously 
barred with blackish; axillary plumes usually white, barred with 
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