B R E A S T E D S N IP E .
RED-BREASTED SNIPE.
MACRORHAMPHUS GRISEUS (/. F. Gmelin).
Scolopax grisea, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 658 (1788).
Macrorhamplius griseus, Macg. iv. p. 275; Yarr. ed. 4, iii.
p. 357; Dresser, viii. p. 187.
This bird is an occasional and uncommon straggler
to our Islands from the other side of the Atlantic. The
first recorded occurrence in England took place in
Devonshire in October 1801, and was made known to
the public by Col. Montagu in his ‘ Ornithological
Dictionary.’ About a dozen more occurrences are on
record with regard to England, two or three in Scotland;
and the principal figure in the accompanying Plate
represents an Irish specimen, that was most obligingly
lent to me by its possessor, Mr. F. Coburn, who, in
the ‘ Zoologist ’ for February 1894, refers to it in the
following words:—“ On October 11th, 1893, I received
from County Tipperary, Ireland, an adult female of the
Red-breasted Snipe (Macrorhamplius griseus) changing
to winter plumage. Professor Newton, who has
examined this bird, gives its dimensions as—bill 2'65,
tarsus P5, wing 6. It will be seen that these measurements
closely approach those of the supposed western