GREAT SNIPE. 2*25 
note than that sibiloiis 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 
regular summer visitant with us, and its peculiar cry is seldom heard 
later than July or August. 
GREAT AWK.— A name for the Awk. 
GREAT BLACK WOODPECKER (^Picus martius, Linn^us.) 
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 eighteen 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 (Scolopa^ major, Linn^us.) 
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. Vdg. 3. 
t, 127. — Scolopax media, Ger. Orn. 4. p. 446. — Scolopax atra, Ih. 450. — Becasse 
des Savanes, 481. — Savanali 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. — LewinsBr. Birds, 4. t. 157.- — Wale. Syn. 2. t. 137. — Fult. Cat. Dorset, 
p. 14. — Lath. Supp. 2. p. 308..! — Rural Sports, p. 444.— .Beicic/c’s Br. Birds, 2. 
p. 67 — Flem. Br. Anim. p. 105. 
This bird weighs about eight ounces ; length sixteen inches. The 
hill 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. 
a 
