THE TRUE SNIPES. 
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is the case, for the tips to the primary-coverts are large, and 
the tips of the secondaries scarcely noticeable. The Great 
Snipe also has sixteen tail-feathers, whereas the Common Snipe 
has only fourteen. 
Range in Great Britain. — An accidental visitor, of which a few 
specimens are killed nearly every autumn, mostly on the 
eastern and southern coasts, between the middle of August 
and the middle of October. These autumn arrivals are gener- 
ally young birds, but an adult has been killed near Yarmouth 
in spring. Its occurrence in the central and western portions 
of England is less frequent. In Scotland ten examples have 
been identified ; while three Irish records were admitted up to 
1889 in Mr. Howard Saunders’ “ Manual.” One of these was 
shot in Co. Galway in October, 1888, and another was ob- 
tained on Achill Island in November of the same year. 
Eango outside the British Islands. — The present species breeds 
in Scandinavia up to 70° N. lat., and is also found nesting 
more or less sparingly in Holland, Denmark, and Northern 
Germany, as well as in Poland and Russia. Mr. Seebohm 
places its range on the Petchora and the Ob at 67° N. lat., 
but he states that in the Yen-e-sai Valley it does not extend 
farther north than 66 j 4 °. It visits South Africa in winter, 
passing through the Caucasus and Persia, as well as the Medi- 
terranean countries, on migration. 
Hahits.— Mr. Seebohm has given an interesting account of 
the habits of the Great Snipe as observed by him on the 
Petchora and the Yen-e-sai. “ In both of these valleys,” he 
writes “ it was one of the last birds to reach the Arctic Circle, 
in the’formerlocalityarrivingonthe 3rd of June, and in the latter 
on the I ith of that month. It migrates at night, singly or in 
pairs, but, so far as is known, not in flocks. In the pairing- 
season the males are gregarious, and have a sort of ‘ lek,’ like 
that of the Ruff, or of many species of Grouse. Late one even- 
ing, as Harvie-Brown and 1 were drifting down the Petchora, 
we came upon a large party of these birds, making curious 
noises with their bills, in the long grass on the banks of the 
river. Sometimes as many as half-a-dozen were on the wing 
at once, but their flights were very short, and we succeeded in 
shooting ten of them, which all proved to be males. I saw 
