16 
BRITISH BIRDS. 
THE RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 
( Scolopax novehorocensis.) 
Montagu says, the weight of this species is seven 
ounces and three quarters ; length fifteen inches ; bill 
three inches long, a little reflected, and of a dusky co- 
lour, except at the base of the under mandible, which 
is pale; irides dusky; orbits white; crown of the head 
dusky, streaked with ferruginous; sides of the head, 
chin, throat, fore part of the neck, breast, belly, and 
sides bright bay, palest on the chin, and with a few 
solitary white feathers on the belly ; round the vent, 
and under tail coverts, the feathers are white, tipped 
with bay ; upper part of the neck behind ferruginous, 
slightly marked down the shafts with dusky; lower 
part of the hind neck, upper part of the back and sca- 
pulars dusky, spotted with ferruginous on the margin 
of the feathers; lower part of the back and rump white, 
with oblong dusky spots down the shafts: upper tail 
coverts barred dusky and ferruginous, becoming white 
at the base of the feathers ; prime quills dusky black, 
the first six mottled with brown and white on the inner 
webs towards the base; the secondaries cinereous, mar- 
gined and spotted with white; the shafts of all more 
or less white; greater coverts of the prime quills black; 
from the fifth tipped with white; those on the seconda- 
ries cinereous, the inner webs spotted with white ; 
lesser coverts a mixture of dusky, cinereous and white, 
dashed with ferruginous, with a few feathers near the 
quills spotted ferruginous like the back : under wing . 
