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Encyclopedia Britannica - Main :: SIV-SOU |
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SNIPE (0. Eng. Spite, Icel. Snipe, Dutch Snip, Ger. Schnepfe) , one of the commonest Limicoline birds, in high repute no less for the table than for the sport it affords. It is the Scolopax gallinago of Linnaeus, but by later writers it has been separated from that genus, the type of which is the Woodcock (q.v.), and has been named Gallinago caelestis. Though considerable numbers are still bred in the British Islands, notwithstanding the diminished area suitable for them, most of those that fall to the gun are undoubtedly of foreign origin, arriving from Scandinavia towards the close of summer or later, and many will outstay the winter if the weather be not too severe, while the home-bred birds emigrate in autumn to return the following spring . Of later years British markets have been chiefly supplied from abroad, mostly from Holland.The variegated plumage of the Snipe is subject to no incon-siderable variation, especially in the extent of dark markings on the belly, flanks, and axillaries, while examples are occasionally seen in which no trace of white, and hardly any of buff or grey, is visible, the place of these tints being taken by several shades of chocolate-brown. Such examples were long considered to form a distinct species, the S. sabinii, but its invalidity is now admitted. Other examples in which buff or rust-colour pre-dominates have also been deemed distinct, and to those has been applied the epithet russata. Again, a slight deviation from the ordinary formation of the tail, whose rectrices normally number 14, and present a rounded termination, has led to the belief in a species, S. brehmi, now wholly discredited. But, setting aside two European species, there are at least a score, belonging to various parts of the world. , Thus N. America produces G. wilsoni, so like the English Snipe as not to be easily distinguished except by the possession of 16 rectrices, and Australia has G. australis, a larger and somewhat differently coloured bird with 18 rectrices. India, while affording a winter resort to the common species, which besides Europe extends its breeding range over the whole of N. Asia, has also at this season the Pin -tailed Snipe, E. stenura, in which the number of rectrices is still greater, varying from 20 to 28, it is said, though 22 seems to be the usual number.. This curious variability, deserving more attention than it has yet received, only occurs in the outer feathers of the series , which are narrow in form and extremely stiff, there being always so in the middle of ordinary breadth.Those who only know the Snipe as it shows itself in the shooting
sharp
mount
series of aerial evolutions of an astounding kind. After wildly circling about, and reaching a height at which it appears a mere speck, where it winnows a random zigzag course, it abruptly shoots downwards and aslant, and then as abruptly stops to regain its former elevation
The third species of which any details can here be given is the Jack-' or Half-Snipe, S. gallinula, the smallest and most beautifully coloured of the group. Without being as numerous as the common or full Snipe, it is of frequent occurrence in Great Britain from September to April (and occasionally both earlier and later); but it breeds only, so far as is known, in N. Scandinavia and Russia; and the first trustworthy information on that subject was obtained by J. Wolley in June 1853, when he found several of its nests near Muonioniska in Lapland
As a group the Snipes are in several respects highly specialized. We may mention the sensitiveness of the bill, which, though to some extent noticeable in many Sandpipers (q.v.), is in Snipes carried to an extreme by a number of filaments, belonging to the fifth pair of nerves, which run almost to the tip and open immediately under the soft cuticle in a series of cells that give this portion of the surface of the premaxillaries, when exposed, a honeycomb-like appearance. Thus the bill becomes a most delicate organ of sensation, and by its means the bird, while probing for food, is at once able to distinguish the nature of the objects it encounters, though these are wholly out of sight. So far as is known the sternum of all the Snipes, except the Jack-Snipe, departs from the normal Limicoline formation, a fact which tends to justify the removal of that species to a separate genus, Limnocryptes.' (A. N.) End of Article: SNIPE (0. Eng. Spite, Icel. Snipe, Dutch Snip, Ger. Schnepfe) If you wish, you can link directly to this article.
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