.S C 0 L 
36. Scoiia septem-cincta.—Cinereous-hairy; the abdo¬ 
men is blueish, with seven yellow bands; the tail is three¬ 
toothed.—It is found in New Holland. A specimen is in 
the museum of Sir Joseph Banks. The tail has a short re¬ 
curved sting; the wings are brown. 
37. Scoiia cylindrica.—This is a black insect; the edge 
of the segments of the abdomen and lateral dot near the 
edge are yellow.—It inhabits Italy. In the yellow lateral 
dot is a small black one; the legs are black; the fore-shanks 
yellow; the sting short and recurved. 
38. Scoiia bifasciata.—Black; the scutel and the two 
dots on tire thorax are ferruginous; the abdomen is marked 
with two interrupted ferruginous bands.—It is a native of 
New York. 
39. Scoiia vespiformis.—This is ferruginous: the five 
segments of the abdomen are black on the fore part; wings 
are of a dirty yellow, with a black base and tip.—It inhabits 
China. 
SCOLIA, or Songs of the Ancient Greeks. See 
Music. 
SCOLIASIS, in Surgery, a distortion of the spine. Ob¬ 
solete. 
SCOLION, among the Ancients, a kind of bacchanal 
song used at entertainments. 
SCO'LLOP, [written properly scallop.'] A pectinated 
shell-fish. 
SCOLOPAX, in Ornithology, a genus of birds of the 
order grallae. This genus is characterized by a roundish 
bill, which is obtuse and longer than the head; the nostrils 
are linear; the face covered; the feet are four-toed, the hind 
toe consisting of many joints. There are about fifty species 
enumerated by Gmelin, which are scattered over different 
parts of the globe; of these, fifteen, as will be found, belong 
to our own country. This genus includes the curlews, the 
snipes, woodcocks, godwits, whimbrels, and green and yel¬ 
low shanks. 
1. Scolopax Guarauna, or Brasilian wliimbrel.—Bill arch¬ 
ed, yellowish; legs brown; head brown, streaked with 
white.—This is a native of South America, and is twenty- 
one inches long. The bill is brown, with a yellow base; 
feathers of the head and neck brown, with a whitish edge ; 
the back and body beneath chestnut; shoulders, wing-co¬ 
verts, rump and tail brown, with a green gloss; quill-fea¬ 
thers brown, the outer edge glossy green. 
2. Scolopax Borealis, or Esquimaux curlew.-—Bill and 
legs black ; the body is brown, spotted with grey, beneath 
pale ochre.—This inhabits the moist and inundated meadows 
of Hudson’s Bay; it is less than the common curlew : it 
feeds on worms and berries. 
3. Scolopax Africana, or Cape curlew.—Bill arched, 
blackish-brown ; legs brown ; body cinereous, beneath it is 
white, and the breast is marked with rusty spots.—This in¬ 
habits the Cape of Good Hope, and is the size of a snipe. 
The face and rump are white; the edges of the wings are 
white mixed with grey; the quill-feathers are brown, with 
white shafts; the secondary wing-coverts tipt with white. 
4. Scolopax pygmaea, or pigmy curlew.—Arched bill and 
legs black; the body is varied with ferruginous, brown and 
white; beneath it is white.—It is sometimes found in this 
country, though not at all common: it is the size of a lark ; 
the rump is white; the quill and outer tail-feathers are edged 
with white. 
5. Scolopax Madagascarensis, or Madagascar curlew.—- 
Arched bill and legs reddish; the back with brown rhom¬ 
boid spots.—It inhabits Madagascar: in its size and appear¬ 
ance it resembles the arquata, except that the bill is less 
arched; the chin is white; and the spots on the body are 
more distinct. 
6 . Scolopax arquata, or common curlew.—Bill arched, 
blackish; legs blueish; wings blackish, with snowy spots. 
—This species inhabits moist and fenny places in our own 
country, and in divers parts of Europe, Asia and Africa, in 
flocks; it feeds on worms and marsh insects; lays four eggs; 
it is of an olive colour, with brown spots; the flesh is very 
O P A X. 815 
good. It is also described as having the lower mandible 
reddish at the base; the body above and breast are marked 
with dusky-brown streaks; the chin, rump, belly and vent 
white; the quill-feathers are black; within spotted with 
white; the legs are blueish; toes flat and broad, and it is 
nearly two feet long. There is a variety which is varied 
with rufous and black; beneath pale rufous; the legs are 
black; the wings are black, with reddish spots. It inhabits 
North America. The body is less; and the bill longer than 
those of the other. 
7. Scolopax Luzoniensis, or Luzonian curlew.—This spe¬ 
cies is white; the head and neck with black streaks; the 
belly and tail with black bands; the back is brown, with 
white spots; the crown is black.—It inhabits Luzonia, and 
is less than the last. 
8 . Scolopax Tahitiensis, or Otaheite curlew.—The bill of 
this is brown, reddish at the base; legs blue grey; crown 
brown; eye-brows pale; body reddish-white, with dusky 
streaks and spots; the back is black, waved with white. 
—-This, as its trivial name denotes, inhabits Otaheite ; it is 
twenty inches long. The quill-feathers are dusky, with paler 
edges ; the tail is of a dirty yellow near the base, with spots, 
the rest with dusky bars. 
9. Scolopax leucocephala, or white-headed curlew.—The 
bill in this is red; legs black, cinereous; head and neck 
white; the body is blue; and the quill-feathers black.—This 
is a native of the Cape of Good Hope. 
10. Scolopax phseopus, or whimbrel.—The bill of this is 
arched and black ; the legs are blueish; the back is marked 
with rhomboid brown spots; the rump is white; lower 
mandible reddish at the base; the body above and breast 
are brownish, with dusky brown streaks; the chin, rump, 
belly and vent are white; the tail is brown, with dusky 
bars; the quill-feathers are black, spotted with white on the 
inside. It is about half the size of the common curlew, but 
agreeing with it in appearance and habits. Although found 
in this country, it is rare. 
11. Scolopax Hudsonica, or Hudsonian curlew.—Bill 
black; legs blue; body brown, spotted with white, the 
belly is white ; the crown is of a chesnut-brown colour, with 
a longitudinal white line in the middle.—It inhabits Hud¬ 
son’s Bay; is the size of the last. The eye-brows are white, 
and the rump is the colour of the back. 
12. Scolopax fusca, or dusky snipe.—Bill bent in at the 
tip; body black, waved with white; the rump and wings 
beneath are white.—It inhabits the north of Europe, and is 
twelve inches long. It migrates; the bill is black; the legs 
are brown ; the lower part of the back and rump are white; 
the quill-feathers are brown, spotted with grey; the tail- 
feathers are brown, transversely streaked with white. 
13. Scolopax cancrea, or Terek snipe.—The bill of this 
species is black; the legs are reddish-brown; the body cine¬ 
reous, beneath white; wings with a whitish transverse band. 
—-This is about the Caspian sea, is nine inches long, and 
gregarious; the bill is a little recurved, and black; throat 
and breast streaked with cinereous; the feathers are brown in 
the middle; the first quill-feathers brown; secondary ci¬ 
nereous. 
14. Scolopax subarquata.—This has an arched bill, and 
black; head, neck, and spurious wings brown, waved with 
pale rusty; the body above is cinereous, beneath pale and 
rusty; the chin, vent and rump, are white.—It inhabits 
the Caspian sea, and is about eight inches long. In this 
species the lower mandible is the shorter of the two; the 
tongue is long, arrow-shaped, entire; the eyes are brown; the 
orbits whitish; lores brown; the rump and vent are marked 
with brown spots; the tail is rounded, and of a brown-ash 
colour. 
15. Scolopax incana, or ash-coloured snipe.—Bill black; 
legs yellowish-green; the body is cinereous; spot behind 
the bill and eyes, chin, throat and middle of the belly, white. 
■—This is a native of Palmerston island, and is eleven inches 
long; the bill is a little incurved at the tip; the chin is 
marked with brown stripes. 
16. Scolopax 
