Page:Natural History, Birds.djvu/281

268 where, however, they are all more or less migratory in their habits. The majority of them frequent marshes, the banks of lakes and rivers, or the seacoast, on which they run with great swiftness. A few species affect the shade of woods and coppices, but even these select, as favourite resorts, the most humid spots they can find. They lay four eggs, of a somewhat conical form, with but little nest; and the business of incubation is performed on the ground of inland moors and fens. The young are able to run about as soon as they escape from the shell; when they are clothed with down. With the exception of a very few polygamous species, the females are larger than the males. Many of them feed, and perform their migrations during the night, and these have the eye very large in proportion to the head.

The following are the generic characters of the restricted Snipes, inclusive of the Woodcocks. The beak is lengthened, straight, flattened at the base, slightly curved at the tip, where it is dilated; the tip of the lower mandible fitting into the upper; the legs and feet are slender, moderately long; the wings moderate, the first or second quills the longest.

Of the five species of this genus which are met with in England, either permanently or occasionally, we select the Common Snipe (Scolopax gallinago, .) to illustrate the Family. Its ground colour is a rich dark brown, so deep in some parts as to be almost black, variously spotted, striped and banded with white, which, on the