468 
SNIPE. 
about the breast and neck, especially the black feathers tipped with 
white, denoting' the approach of those bands, so conspicuously beautiful 
in the adult. The feathers on the crown are more rufous, and the crest 
long-er than in the female, and the patch on the wing- is not pure white, 
but mottled with brown. The secondary quills and their greater coverts 
are black, slig-htly tipped with white, making- two slender white lines 
across that part of the wings. Both these birds had the usual number 
of tail feathers, (sixteen,) and their legs and toes equally of a blue grey 
colour, with dusky webs. The old bird weighed twenty-four ounces, 
and measured eighteen inches ; the young one sixteen ounces, and 
seventeen inches in length. 
The trachea, or windpipe of this species,” says Latham, “ is 
smallest near the upper part, but enlarges as it approaches towards the 
middle, from whence to the bottom it continues nearly of equal dimen- 
sions, the texture consisting of completely bony rings, with scarcely 
any cartilage intervening ; at the bottom is a bony cavity as in the 
others, smaller in proportion, and differing in shape, the greater ex- 
panse being from side to side ; whereas in the other it is almost upwards 
and downwards ; on one side is a round hole, covered by a drum-like 
membrane, and on the opposite an oval smooth hollow bone uniting 
with it : from the bottom arises the bronchial tubes. 
This is by far the most plentiful species of merganser that frequents 
our coasts and fresh waters in the winter ; but we believe it never has 
been known to breed in this country, seeming to be confined to the 
arctic regions of both continents, where it builds its nest on the banks 
of lakes and rivers, laying from eight to twelve white eggs.* 
SNAKE BIRD, — A name for the Wryneck. 
SNIPE. — *A genus of birds belonging to the Waders (^Grallatores, 
Illiger.)* 
SNIPE (^Scolopax gallinago, Linnjeus.) 
Scolopax Gallinago, Linn. Syst. 1. p. 244. l.— Gmel. Syst. 2. p. 662. — Lath. Ind. 
Orn. 2. p. 715. 6. — Laii, Syn. p, 105. A. 2. — Will. p. 214. t. 53.- — Briss. 5. p. 
298. 2. — lb. 8vo. 2. p. 285. — Temm. Man. d’Orn. 2. p. 676. — Flern. Br. Anim. 
p. 106. — Becassine, Biig. Ois. 7. p. 483. t. 26 — Snipe, or Snite, Br. Zool. 2. 
No. 187. t. 68.— Ib. fob. 121.— Arct. Zool. 2. No. 366 Will. (Angl.) p. 290. 
t. 53. — Albin, 1. t. 11.— .White's Hist. Selb. p. 29. — Lath. Syn. 5. p. 134. 6. 
— Lewin’s Br. Birds, 4. 1 . 158. — Wale. Syn. 2. t. 138. — Pult. Cat. Dorset, p. 14. 
The weight of this species is about four ounces ; length near twelve 
inches ; the bill three inches long, dusky ; in some the base is lighter, 
flattish, and rough at the end ; irides dusky ; crown of the head black, 
with a longitudinal light rufous line down the middle ; from the base 
of the upper mandible another line of the same colour passes on each 
side over the eyes ; between the bill and eye is a dusky line ; the throat 
