THE WOOD-COCKS. 
20S 
THE SNIPES. SUB-FAMILY SCOLOPACIN^E. 
The Snipes, with which are associated the Wood cocks, are 
principally distinguished from the 
to the toes, which are cleft to the actual base. 
not reticulated, but is transversely scaled or plated, both befo e 
and behind. The bill is long and soft, and the nasal groove is 
produced along the greater part of the 
plumage is in every case marbled or mottled to an extreme 
‘^"rhe'bill of the Snipe is somewhat soft, and the birds possess 
a peculiar power of being able to elevate the \ 
of the upper mandible. Dr. Shufeldt believes that thu 
achievement, taken in connection with the extreme sensitive- 
ness of the end of the upper beak in these birds, e^^ks them 
both to quickly detect and seize their food in the soft ooze 
wherein they probe for it/ 
THE WOOD-COCKS. GENUS SCOLOPAX. 
Scolopax, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 243 (W66)- 
Type, A. rusticula (Linn.). 
The Wood-cocks belong to the long-billed section ot the 
Snipes in which the culmen is longer than the tarsus. They 
have a’large eye, which is placed far back in the head, so Aat 
£ hinde^marVn is just above the onfice of the ear. The 
wine, is more rounded than in the Snipes, the long, inner 
secondaries not reaching to the primaries. The tail-feathers 
are twelve in number and the tibia is feathered to the tarsal 
joint. 
I the wood-cock, scolopax rusticula. 
Scolopax ncsthula, Linn. Syst. Nat ‘-P- ^43 (1766) ; Dresser, 
B Eur. vii. p- 615. pt- 54 ° (i 877 ) i B- O. U. List Brit. B. 
n (1883) ; Saunders, ed. Yarrell’s Brit. B. m. P- 32 ° 
FtSRiV Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 231 (1885); 
B. p. 553 (. 889 ); Lilfo.d, Col. Fig. 
Brit. B. part viii. (1888) ; xiv. (1890). 
Rusticola sylvesiris, Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 386 (1852). 
(Plale LXXXV.) 
