THE TRUE SNIPES. 
211 
secondaries, which are as long as the primaries, as well as the 
bare tibia and the number of the tail-feathers,_which range from 
fourteen in the Common Snipe to twenty-six in the Wire-tailed 
Snipe {G. stenura). The Snipes have no bars on the inner 
webs of the primaries, and Mr. Seebohni has also pointed out 
that in the Snipes the markings on the head are longitudinal, 
whereas in the Wood-cocks they are transverse. 
I. THE GREAT SNIPE. GALLINAGO MAJOR. 
Scolopax major, Gm. Syst. Nat. i. p. 66i (1788); Macgill. Brit. 
B. iv. p. 364 (1852); Seebohm, Hist. Brit. B. iii. p. 237 
(1885). 
Gallinago tnajor, Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 631, pi. S 4 i ( 1 ^ 7 ^) > 
B. O. U. List Brit. B. p. 165 (1883); Saunders, ed. Yar- 
rell’s Brit. B. iii. p. 336 (1883) ; id. Man. Brit. B. p. 555 
(1889). 
Adult Male. — General colour above black, mottled with sandy- 
buff, with which the feathers are fringed and barred in an 
irregular and wavy manner so as to leave large patches of 
black ; the scapulars with broader and whiter edges, so as to 
form a double line down the back ; lower back, rump, and 
upper tail-coverts sandy-buff, barred with dusky- brown, the 
ends of the tail-coverts whiter ; wing-coverls blackish-brown, 
the marginal series with ashy fringes, the remainder with con- 
spicuous white tips, before which is a black sub-terminal bar, 
the inner greater coverts also barred with sandy rufous; bas- 
tard-wing and primary- coverts blackish, tipped with white ; 
quills dark brown, the shafts of the primaries white at the base, 
the secondaries tipped with white, the innermost being barred 
with sandy-rufous and resembling the back ; tail-feathers 
bright rufous, with black bases and black bars on the terminal 
half of the feather, scarcely visible near the tip, the white tips 
to the feathers gradually increasing in extent, until the four 
outer ones on each side are entirely white, except for a little 
black near the base ; centre of crown whitish, bordered on 
each side by a broad band of black, slightly freckled w'ith 
rufous, and followed by a broad superciliary streak, ashy- 
whitish in front and fulvescent behind ; a dusky streak from 
the base of the bill to the eye; sides of face whitish, tvith 
p 2 
