182 
COMMON SNIPE. 
our authority rests on the evidence of sportsmen. 
Lloyd, in his Northern Field Sports, finds it abun- 
dant in the north of Europe. Mr. Yarrell, on the 
authority of Mr. Dann, states, that it “ breeds in 
extensive morasses and swamps, in the mountainous 
districts of Norway and Sweden. From Scona to 
Lapland it is widely distributed. Russia and Siberia 
are given to it by Pennant ; the vicinity of Smyrna 
by Mr. Strickland. It is enumerated in the Suma- 
tran Catalogue of Sir Stamford Raffle’s collection. 
The birds of America are distinct. 
The markings of the plumage of many of the 
Snipes is so similar, that there is great difficulty in 
describing them so as to show specific distinctions. 
The general upper ground colour of the Common 
British Snipe is deep brownish-black, and this is 
varied by the light wood-brown edges of the fea- 
thers, which are so distributed in many parts as to 
run in lines. The colour of the crown is divided by 
a central pale line produced in this manner ; from 
the nostrils, over each eye, another broad line 
stretches, and from the gape to the eye there is a 
blackish-brown streak of uninterrupted colour ; on 
the back of the neck, from the centres of the fea- 
thers only being dark, an irregularly varied mixture 
is produced ; but upon the back scapulars and long 
tertials, the feathers are edged with a broad margin 
of clear wood-brown, which runs in lines along the 
back ; the lower part of the back, when the long 
tertials are laid aside, is nearly black, each feather 
tipped with white, producing altogether a distinctly 
