68 
BRITISH BIRDS. 
COMMON SNIPE. 
SNITE, OR HEATHER-BLEATER. 
{^Scolopax GalllnagOi Lin.— Becaffme, BuflP.) 
The common Snipe is generally about four 
ounces in weight, and meafures twelve inches in 
length, and fourteen in breadth. The bill is near- 
ly three inches long ; in fome pale brown, in others 
greeniih yellow, rather flat and dark at the tip, 
and very fmooth in the living bird ; but it foon be- 
comes dimpled like the end of a thimble, after the 
bird is dead : the head is divided lengthwife by 
three reddifli or rufty white lines, and two of black; 
one of the former pafies along the middle of the 
crown, and one above each eye : a darkifh mark 
is extended from the corners of the mouth nearly 
