220 
SNIPE. 
SNIPE SCOLOPAX GALLINAGO ?— Plate XLVII. Fig 1. 
La Beccassine, Briss. v. 298, pi. 26, fig. 1. — Lath. Syn. iii. 134. 
SCOLOPAX JVILSONII.—TamnmK.* 
Scolopax Wilsonii, Temm. PL Col. Note to description of S. Gigantea — Bonap. 
Synop. p. 830. — Monog. del Gen. Scolopax Osserv. Sulla, 2d edit. Del Reg. 
Anim. p. 120. — Scolopax Brehinii, Bonap. Observ. on Nomencl. 
This bird is well known to our sportsmen ; and, if not the 
same, has a very near resemblance to the common Snipe of 
Europe. It is usually known by the name of the English 
* Five or six species of Snipes are so much allied in the colours and general 
marking of the plumage, that a very narrow examination is often necessary for 
their determination ; from this reason, the birds from America, Asia, and the 
Indian continent, were considered as identical, and a much wider geographical 
range allotted to the European Snipe than it was generally entitled to. 
Wilson had some doubts of this bird being the same with the European Snipe, 
as he marks his name with a query, and observed the difference in the number 
of tail-feathers. Bonaparte observed the difference as soon as his attention 
was turned to the ornithology of America ; and, about the same time, a new 
Snipe was described by Mr Kaup, in the Isis, as found occasionally in cold 
winters in the north of Germany. The Prince of Musignano, on comparing 
this description with the American species, from their very close alliance, 
judged them identical; while, in the meantime, Temminck, comparing both 
together, perceived distinctions, and dedicated that of America to her own 
ornithologist, an opinion which Bonaparte afterwards confirmed and adopted 
in his monograph of that genus. 
Mr Swainson has introduced a Snipe, which he thinks is distinct, killed on 
the Rocky Mountains, and named by him S. Drummondii ; and another, killed 
on the Columbia, which he calls S. Douglasii. The first “ is common in the 
Fur Countries up to lat. 65°, and is also found in the recesses of the Rocky 
Mountains. It is intermediate in size between the S. major and gallinago ; 
it has a much longer bill than the latter, and two more tail-feathers. Its head 
is divided by a pale central stripe, as in S. gallinula and major ; its dorsal 
plumage more distinctly striped than that of the latter ; and the outer tail- 
feather is a quarter of an inch shorter than that of S. Douglasii." The latter, 
in Mr Swainson’s collection, has the tail of sixteen feathers, not narrowed, all 
banded with ferruginous except the outer pair, which are paler; total length, 
eleven and a half inches. 
Most of the Snipes partially migrate in their native countries, and some 
