GALLINAGO SCOLOPACINA 
Common Snipe. 
Scolopax Gallinago, Linn. Syst. Nat., tom. i. p. 244. 
uniclavatiis, Hodgs. Journ. Asiat. Soc. Beng., 1837, p. 492. 
Sabini, Vig. in Linn. Trans., vol. xiv. p. 656, pi. 31. 
(AscalopaxJ Gallinago, Schrenck, Reis, und Forsch. im Amurlande, Band i. p. 421. 
Gallinago media, Steph. Cont. of Shaw’s Gen. Zool., vol. xii. p. 54 ; Gray and Mitch. Gen. of Birds, vol. hi. p. 583, 
Gallinago, sp. 2. 
scolopacinus, Bonap. Geog. and Comp. List of the Birds of Eur. and N. Am., p. 52. 
Brehmii, Kaup. 
Telmatias gallinago, Bias. List of Birds of Eur., Engl, edit., p. 19. 
So much has been written respecting the habits and economy of this highly esteemed bird, that to say any- 
thing new on these points would he almost impossible. Mr. Selby must ever take the first ratd< among 
living writers on those of our native birds which are of especial interest to sportsmen ; and accordingly 
much Information with regard to this species may be found in his ‘British Ornithology.’ Thompson and 
Macgillivray have also both left behind them abundant notes relative to it. My own remarks will take a 
wider field ; for I shall give some account of the range of the bird in other countries, and of the varieties 
which occasionally occur. Although the Snipe is strictly an indigenous bird, vast accessions to those bred 
in England and Ireland annually occur — great flights arriving from Norway and Sweden in the month of 
November, and spreading themselves over every part of the British Islands, from north to south and from 
east to west. In Ireland, owing to the greater amount of boggy and undrained land, the bird is even more 
abundant than in England. It is an inhabitant of all parts of Europe, Iceland, Greenland, a great part of 
Africa, the whole of Asia Minor, western and northern India, China and Japan: it is enumerated in the list 
of the birds of the Amoor, and it is doubtless spread over the whole of Siberia. 
The Gallinago Brehmii of Kaup must, I think, rank as a synonym of our bird, since the principal 
difference consists in an elongation of the outer tail-feathers, which I believe to be characteristic of one 
or other of the old birds in the breeding-season ; and the Scolopax Sabini of Vigors should be placed in 
the same category ; for, notwithstanding the dark colouring of the specimens to which that name has been 
applied, and the difference in some of their markings, ornithologists now consider them to be merely a 
black variety ; still this extraordinary departure from the normal colouring of the plumage is very puzzling, 
and specimens in this state most always be regarded with interest : the last example which occurred in 
England was shot by Brydges Willyams, Esq., of Nan’s Kavel in Cornwall, in 1861, and is now in the 
possession of that gentleman. 
Every ornithologist must have experienced great difficulty in finding good specific characters for the 
various members of this group of birds, some of the foreign species being most closely allied ; this difficulty, 
however, does not exist with regard to the three which inhabit England, for no birds can be more different. 
A Snipe, however, is every now and then found in our markets, which on comparison with the Gallinago sco- 
lopacina is found to differ, being redder in colour and weighing six ounces. So far as I am aware, this 
bird has not yet received a specific name ; and, after all, it may he only a variety ; still it is a matter wliicli 
requires close attention. Mr. Rodd says, in the ‘ Zoologist,’ p. 4704, “ For some years past I have 
occasionally met with a Snipe in this neighbourhood, which I strongly suspect to be distinct from the 
common one, and not hitherto described. I think the first was in 1834. Some five or six examples 
have since come under my notice ; and I may remark that the size of the new bird is longer and more 
bulky than the Common Snipe. The whole of the tints of the upper plumage, both as to the rufous 
and buff markings, are darker, and the dorsal stripes are much narrower, and appear altogether more 
obscure than in the Scolopax scolopacinus. There is also more rufous about the head and shoulders, and the 
under parts are more darkly clouded, with the flanks much more striated, and the belly less silvery white. 
All the specimens that I have seen correspond with each other ; they all appear larger than the Common 
Snipe, but, like that bird, have fourteen tail-feathers. Mr. Vingoe has been looking out for specimens 
during this hard winter (1854-55), and succeeded in shooting one, which, he says, rose without any noise, 
and without any companions.” “I have lately examined,” says Mr. Gatcombe (‘ Zoologist,’ p. 7938), “ two 
examples of the large brown variety of Snipe, so accurately described by Mr. Rodd. One of these, killed at 
Dartmoor, in December last (1861), quite equalled in size some specimens of S. major, but differed from 
that species in having the belly white, and only fourteen feathers in the tail. The general markings were 
