BRITISH BIRDS, 
67 
GREAT SNIPE. 
( Scolopax Media . ) 
Latham gives the following defcription of this 
bird : — “ Size between the Woodcock and Snipe : 
weight eight ounces ; length fixteen inches : bill 
four inches long, and like that of the Woodcock : 
crown of the head black, divided down the middle 
by a pale ftripe : over and beneath each eye ano- 
ther of the fame : the upper parts of the body very 
like the Common Snipe : beneath white : the fea- 
thers edged with dulky black on the neck, bread:, 
and fides ; and thofe of the belly fpotted with the 
fame, but the middle of it is plain white ; quills 
dufky : tail reddifli, the two middle feathers plain, 
the others barred with black : legs black. He 
adds, This is a rare fpecies. A fine fpecimen of 
it was fhot in Lancafhire, now in the Leverian Mu- 
feum ; faid alfo to have been met with in Kent.’’ * 
* The author has feen three fpecimens of a large kind of 
Snipe called, by fome fportfmen, from being always found 
alone, the Solitary Snipe, They weighed the fame as the above- 
mentioned, but differed in fome flight particulars, meafurlng 
only twelve inches in length, and from tip to tip about nine- 
teen. The upper parts of the plumage were nearly like thofe 
of the Common Snipe : the breaft, fides, belly and vent white, 
fpotted, barred, and undulated with black. It is not clearly 
afcertalned whether this be a diftin£f fpecies of Snipe, or whe- 
ther it acquires its bulk and change of plumage from age, and 
its folitary habits from ceafing to breed. 
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