816 
S C O L 
16. Scolopax grisea, or brown snipe.—The bill, legs, 
wing-coverts and quill-feathers, brown, the head, neck and 
shoulders are brown-ash, spotted with black; the back and 
belly are white.—It inhabits the sea-coasts of New York, and 
is eleven inches long; the band between the bill and eyes, 
and stripe on each side above the eyes, white; the secondary 
quill-feathers edged with white; the breast is varied with 
white and brown ; tail and rump with black and white lines; 
the back toe is high and long. 
17. Scolopax noveboracensis, or red-breasted snipe.— 
This is varied with black, cinereous, and red; the back and 
belly are white; wings cinereous; the tail is barred with 
white and black.—It is a native of New York. The bill and 
legs are brown; the fore-part of the neck is ferruginous, with 
black spots. 
18. Scolopax nigra, or black snipe.—The bill and legs 
of this are red; the body is black.—This species inhabits the 
islands of the northern countries of Asia and America. 
19. Scolopax nutans, or nodding snipe.—The bill is 
black; the legs greenish; the body cinereous; crown and 
upper part of the back dusky red, streaked; lower white, 
spotted with black.—This species inhabits Labrador, and is 
seen continually nodding its head. The cheeks are cine¬ 
reous, streaked with black; the neck and breast mixed with 
cinereous and rusty, with dusky spots; the belly is white; 
the ■ lesser wing-coverts cinereous, greater dusky edged with 
brown; the quill-feathers are dusky, the secondary tipt 
with white; the tail with black and white hnes, and reddish 
at the tip. 
20. Scolopax flavipes, or yellow shank.—Bill black; legs 
yellow; body whitish, spotted with black; the throat and 
breast varied with black and white; the belly and tail-co- 
verts are white.—This is found at New York in the autumn 
of the year, and is eleven inches long; the bill is a little bent 
at the tip; the lesser wing-coverts are brown; primary quill- 
feathers dusky; the tail is marked with brown and white 
lines. 
21. Scolopax melanoleuca, or stone snipe.—Bill black; 
legs yellow; body varied with black and white.—It inha¬ 
bits, during the autumn, the sandy shores of Labradore, and 
is twice as large as the Scolopax gallinago, to be hereafter 
described: this is perpetually nodding its head. The tail 
and rump are marked with black and white lines; the pri¬ 
mary quill-feathers are dusky. 
22. Scolopax semi-palmata, or semi-palmated snipe.— 
Semi-palmate; legs and bill dusky ; the head and neck are 
streaked black and white; the breast is white, dotted with 
black; the back is cinereous, with black arrow-shaped 
spots.—This inhabits New York. It is fourteen inches Jong; 
the belly is white; the flanks are white, with transverse 
black lines; the primary quill-feathers are dusky, with an 
oblique white band; the secondary are white; the middle 
tail-feathers cinereous, with black lines; the outer ones are 
white. 
23. Scolopax rusticola, or woodcock.—Bill straight, 
reddish at the base; legs cinereous; thighs covered; the 
head has a black band oh each side. Four varieties are 
noticed by Gmelin :—1. Body white. 2. Very pale straw- 
colour. 3. Head reddish; body white; wings brown. 4. 
The body is spotted; the wings are snowy. It is fifteen 
inches long, lays four or five eggs, rusty, with brown spots; 
the flesh, and even the intestines, are good.—The woodcock 
is reckoned very fine f ood, and is found in this country, and 
other northern parts of Europe, Asia and Africa. In the 
summer these birds retreat, in France, to the loftier mountains, 
and those of our own country towards the mountainous 
regions of Norway and Sweden. Few birds are more 
widely scattered over the whole continent than the wood¬ 
cocks. They are found in great plenty as far south as 
Smyrna and Aleppo; and in the same season in Barbary, 
where the Africans call them, from their uncouth shapes, the 
asses of the partridge. Towards the East they are found as 
far as Japan, where they are common. In the summer, they 
are found in Canada and Cape .Breton in such numbers, as 
0 P A X. 
renders it highly probable that the greater part of those that 
frequent Great Britain and Ireland come from that quarter of 
the globe. On the west of Scotland they are far more 
numerous than on the east, and on the western coast of 
Ireland the observation is still more just. They arrive there 
in such vast quantities, and are so completely exhausted by 
their long flight, that they may sometimes be taken by the 
hand. 
Both in its native country, and during its migrations, the 
woodcock feeds upon small worms, which it obtains by 
means of its long bill in soft ground and moist woods. 
When these birds migrate, they generally fly in flocks, and 
take the advantage of the night, or of cloudy weather. They 
are, in some respects, night birds, for they feed most busily 
in the evening, and then their flights are most distant and 
rapid. Their nests are carelessly constructed of small twigs 
mixed with withered grass, built generally on the ground, 
at the root of a tree, and in them are found four or five 
white eggs, of a brownish-grey, marbled with deeper spots 
of the same colour. The young run as soon as they leave 
the shell, and fly when they have scarcely any other feathers 
than those of their wings. 
24. Scolopax minor, or little woodcock.—Bill straight; 
legs brownish ; front cinereous ; hind-head black, with four 
transverse yellowish lines; chin white; body above black, 
waved with tawny ish; beneath yellow.—It inhabits America; 
is nearly a foot long ; the flesh is reckoned a great delicacy. 
The lower mandible is much the shorter; from the bill to 
the eyes is a dusky line; the greater wing-coverts are marked 
with black and red angular lines, the inner are ferruginous ; 
primary quill-feathers dusky; the tail is black, with a brown 
tip._ 
25. Scolopax paludosa, or savanna woodcock.—Bill and 
legs brown ; lores and eye-brows black ; the body is black, 
varied with rufous above, beneath with whitish.—It inhabits 
the savannas of Cayenne. The body beneath is varied with 
black spots. 
26. Scolopax major, or great snipe.—Of this the legs and 
crown are black ; the latter with a pale divided line down the 
middle, a pale streak above and beneath the eyes; the body 
varied above, white beneath ; the bill like that of the wood¬ 
cock ; the lower feathers of the body, except the middle 
of the belly, edged with black; quill-feathers dusky ; tail- 
feathers reddish, and, excepting the two middle ones, with 
black lines. It sometimes is found to weigh eight ounces ; 
it is sixteen inches long.—It inhabits Siberia. 
27. Soclopax Cayennensis, or Cayenne snipe.—Bill dusky, 
with a reddish base; the legs are brown; the body above 
ashy-brown, spotted with yellow; beneath it is white.—It 
inhabits Cayenne, and is thirteen inches long. The greater 
wing-coverts are whitish, the lower ones varied with a dusky 
kind of white; the quill-feathers are brown, the base, and 
some at the tip, are white ; the throat is a little spotted ; the 
rump is white, the tail is marked with dusky lines and tip. 
28. Scolopax gallinago, or common snipe.—Bill straight, 
tuberculate; legs brown; body varied with blackish and 
tawny; beneath it is white; the front is marked with four 
brown lines. The weight of this species is seldom more, or 
indeed so much, as four ounces, though the whole length is 
about twelve inches.—It is met with in marshy situations in 
almost every part of the world, and is, in some seasons, 
rather plentiful in our own island. When there is very much 
rain, and for a long continuance, it resorts to the hills, but in 
general it is found in marshy grounds, where it can penetrate 
with its bill in quest of worms. Some few remain with us 
the whole year, and breed in marshes and bogs. The nest 
is formed of the materials, easily supplied by the neighbour¬ 
hood, such as coarse grass, or heath; it is placed on a dry 
spot near a swampy place ; the eggs, like those of the lap¬ 
wing, being much pointed, are invariably placed with their 
smaller ends inwards. In the breeding season the snipe 
changes its note entirely. The male will keep on the wing 
for an hour together, mounting like a lark, uttering a shrill 
piping noise, and then descend with great velocity, making 
a bleating 
