Scolopax gallinago Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 (1758), 1, 147.
Gallinago gallinago Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1896), 24,
633; Hand-List (1899), 1, 165; Oates, Cat. Birds' Eggs (1902),
2, 61; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 29.
Gallinago coelestis Oates, Bds. Brit. Burmah (1883), 2, 381.
Can-du-ro', Manila and Mindoro.
Bohol (Everett); Leyte (Everett); Luzon (Meyer, Everett, Whitehead,
McGregor); Mindanao (Mearns); Mindoro (McGregor). Europe to
northern Asia; in winter Senegambia and northeastern Africa,
Indian Peninsula to Malay Peninsula and the Moluccas.
"Male and female.--Crown black with a fulvous streak over median
line; a blackish streak from bill to eye, above and below which the
feathers are pale fulvous; chin whitish; throat and sides of head and
neck fulvous, streaked with black; breast and sides of body fulvous,
barred with black; abdomen and vent white; under tail-coverts fulvous,
streaked with brown; under wing-coverts barred indistinctly with
black and white; tail black, the end rufous mottled with black; upper
plumage black, edged and streaked with rich fulvous and chestnut;
wing-coverts black, barred with fulvous; quills dark brown, narrowly
edged with whitish. Bill fleshy brownish, green for two-thirds of its
length from base, remainder horny brown; iris very dark brown; legs
and feet brownish green. Length, 267; tail, 61; wing, 127; tarsus,
30; bill from gape, 58." (Oates.)
"Adult female.--Similar to the male. Length, 267; culmen, 71; wing,
135; tail, 62; tarsus, 33.
"Young.--Differs from the adult in being more rufous, especially on
the throat and neck. The black markings of the back are more broken
up and mottled with rufous bars, and the pale outer bands along the
scapulars are not so wide. Seebohm states that young snipes may be
recognized by not having a dark shaft-line on the light tips of the
upper wing-coverts, but I have found indications of the latter in
quite young birds.
"Nestling.--Covered with down of a chestnut color, interspersed with
black along the back, and prettily variegated with silvery tips to
the feathers; below the eye a whitish streak, bordered with lines of
black; under surface of body bright chestnut, with a black spot on
the throat and a black line across the fore neck." (Sharpe.)
"This species and G. stenura are likely to be confounded unless special
attention is paid to the differences between them. The first and most
unfailing point of difference is in the tail. In G. gallinago the tail
is composed of twelve, fourteen, or sixteen ordinary soft feathers;
in G. stenura there are ten soft feathers and on either side of these
a number, varying from five to nine, of narrow rigid feathers with
apparently no webs. These narrow feathers require to be looked for;
they do not strike the eye, as they are more or less hidden by the
tail-coverts and are moreover very close together. A second point of
difference lies in the coloration of the lower surface of the wing. In
the pintail snipe the axillars and the under wing-coverts are very
distinctly and regularly barred with dark brown throughout. In the
common snipe these same parts are indistinctly barred, and there is
always a patch on the coverts left quite white and unbarred. Mr. Hume
points out one or two additional differences which it may be well
to quote: In the common snipe the outer web of the first primary
is white or nearly so, and the secondaries are broadly tipped with
white; in the pintail the outer web of the first primary is of the
same color as the inner, and the secondaries are only margined with
albescent or brownish white." (Oates.)
Genus ROSTRATULA Vieillot, 1816.
Bill long and slender but shorter than in Gallinago, its tip slightly
swollen and bent downward with a median ridge and two lateral grooves,
not pitted; culmen little longer than tarsus; female brighter in
plumage than male.