the geeatbk — 
by NEWBOLD T. LAWRENCE. 
u . , , n be held by certain eminent ornithologists 
As this bird seems to be h ^ y j ghouW like to give 
to be rather a doubtful species or Lon g p s i a nd, where I have 
my experience with it ;<n -J*™ ecime ns and noting two others, 
had the pleasure of secur ^ of gome forty specimens 
and also give the resu . «The supposed species 
of both birds. Dr. Elliott o _ y ^ ^ biU; is not even 
(J f. l *“ d ‘", rg T llll „. t flock contain. a pc cent 
sr ihe 
Lawrence on the Greater Long-Beak. 155 
normal individual variation.” * He then gives the measurements of 
nine specimens shot out of the same flock, the mininum length 
being 10.25, grading to a maximum of 12.50, and in the bill from 
2.20 to 3.25. From this we see the variation in length and length 
of bill is about one inch, which, he says, “ is not much more than 
is frequently found in examples of Ereunetes pusillus and Numenius 
longirostris.” This may be so, but with the last two birds the 
parallel stops here, for the notes, plumage, and habits of E. pusillus 
and N. longirostris are the same, notwithstanding how they may 
differ in other particulars, while with the M. scolopaceus and 
M. griseus there is not only a variation in size and length of bill 
between the two birds, but the notes, plumage, and habits are dif- 
ferent, at least so far as I have observed, and still, with due respect 
for what Dr. Coues says on the subject, in all my Bay Snipe shoot- 
ing I have yet to see the flock of Red-breasted Snipe from which 
any nine individuals could be shot showing the great variation in 
measurement he gives, at least on Long Island, although in the 
West it may be so. From this I surmise that perhaps the Red- 
breasted Snipe in the West is M. scolopaceus, and that the M. griseus 
is merely a straggler, while on the Atlantic Coast it is just the con- 
trary, the M. scolopaceus being the straggler ; particularly as Mr. 
George N. Lawrence states that all specimens supposed to be 
M. griseus which he has examined from Mexico have turned out 
to be M. scolopaceus. The bill of this bird varies from 2.50 to 3.25, 
while that of M. griseus seldom if ever reaches 2.50 in length. 
The M. scolopaceus not only exceeds the other in length of bill, 
etc., but the whole general appearance of the bird is very noticeably 
different, and it can be easily distinguished from M. griseus some 
distance off. 
Mr. George FT. Lawrence says : “ In all three of my specimens 
which are in full summer plumage, the breast and entire abdomen 
is of a uniform rather pale rufous without spots or bars, but having 
the sides of the breast transversely barred with black. In an 
example from Texas, the breast is barred in the same manner as the 
ones from Cuba.”t 
In all of the seventeen specimens of M. scolopaceus I have exam- 
ined, this character of the plumage is strongly marked, with still 
*' Birds of the Northwest, p. 477. 
t Notes on Cuban Birds, with Descriptions of New Species. Annals of 
Lyceum of Nat. History of N. Y., Yol. VII, p. 272. 
