iSS 
British Birds. 
THE 
BROAD-BILLED 
SANDPIPER. 
( Limicola 
platyrhyncha.) 
The Broad-billed Sandpiper. 
The peculiar bill 
of the present 
species is its best 
character for dis- 
tinction, as it has 
the culmen broad 
and flat, tapering off into an awl-like 
tip, which is slightly decurved also ; 
the bill too is rather long (i- 3 -inch) 
and exceeds the tarsus (o-8-inch) con- 
siderably in length. It is a darker bird 
than a Dunlin, being mottled with rufous 
in summer, and having the throat and 
breast thickly marked with dusky blackish streaks ; in winter the under surface 
of the body is white, with a few dusky streaks on the breast. So far as is known 
the species has not been noticed in Scotland, and has occurred only once in Ireland, 
but nearly a dozen specimens have been procured in the eastern and southern counties 
of England. It breeds in Northern Europe and Siberia, and is found in winter in 
China, India and in the Mediterranean countries. The nest is placed on a tuft of 
grass in a bog. The eggs are four in number, and are dark in colour, varying from 
pinkish-brown to stone or olive-grey, blotched and spotted with chocolate-brown 
and grey; their length is about an inch-and-a-quarter to nearly an inch-and-a-half. 
The Snipes and the Woodcocks can be told by the position of 
THE 
the eye, which is placed so far back in the head that the opening 
GREAT SNIPE. . , r . . , 
... . . of the ear is mst below the hinder margin of the eye. Snipes 
(( jauinago major.) J J r 
may be distinguished 
from Woodcocks by 
the markings on the 
head being linear, and 
not transverse, and 
there are no bars on 
the primary quills. 
The Great Snipe 
has the outer tail- 
coverts white, without 
bars, and the wing- 
coverts have con- 
spicuous white tips. 
It has also sixteen 
tail-feathers instead of 
The Common Snipe. 
The Great Snipe. 
