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Professor Ansted includes the Ruff in his list, and only marks it as occurring in Guernsey. There is no specimen in the Museum at present. WOODCOCK. Scolopax rusticola, Linnaeus. French, "Becasse ordinaire."
It is the same bird, Ortyx Virginiana: they call it partridge in the South rather smaller than ours at the North. In the swamp I found snipe, Scolopax Wilsonii: they call them here jacksnipe. Here is one of them: did you ever see a fatter bird?" "I should like to go and look them up to-morrow morning," said the captain. "How far away were they?" "About half a mile only, north-west.
Somebody burst open the hall-door, and, without shutting it, dashes into the parlour, accompanied by a tornado of damp air, and announces in a loud though not unpleasant voice, with a foreign accent "I have got the new Scolopax." He was a broad, massive built man, about the middle height, with a square determined set of features, brightened up by a pair of merry blue eyes.
Gallienne in his remarks on some of the birds included in the list. THICK-KNEE. Oedicnemus scolopax, S.G. Gmelin. French, "Oedicneme criard," "Poule d'Aurigny." The Thick-knee, Stone Curlew, or Norfolk Plover, as it is called, though only an occasional visitant, is much more common than the Little Bustard; indeed, Mr. MacCulloch says that "it is by no means uncommon in winter.
His forehead was, I think, the finest I ever saw; so high, so broad, and so upright; and, altogether, he was the sort of man that in a city one would turn round and look after, wondering who he was. He stood in the doorway, dripping, and without "Good-even," or salutation of any sort, exclaimed "I have got the new Scolopax!" "No!" cried old John, starting up all alive, "Have you though?
It is distinguished from the white-crested kalij pheasant by the cock having a glossy blue-black crest. The hens of the two species resemble one another closely in appearance. Coturnix communis. The grey quail. Arboricola torqueola. The common hill partridge. Francolinus vulgaris. The black partridge. Fairly common at elevations below 4000 feet. Scolopax rusticola. The woodcock.
"I did give Lester credit for a little common sense and a little knowledge, but I declare he possesses neither. It beats the world how he has got things mixed. Just listen to this," added Don, consulting his note-book. "He speaks of a pheasant and calls it T. Scolopax. Now Scolopax is a snipe. He probably meant ruffed grouse, and should have called it Tetrao Umbellus.
That, namely, which so reveres every fact, that it dare not overlook or falsify it, seem it never so minute; which feels that because it is a fact it cannot be minute, cannot be unimportant; that it must be a fact of God; a message from God; a voice of God, as Bacon has it, revealed in things; and which therefore, just because it stands in solemn awe of such paltry facts as the Scolopax feather in a snipe's pinion, or the jagged leaves which appear capriciously in certain honeysuckles, believes that there is likely to be some deep and wide secret underlying them, which is worth years of thought to solve.
There is one specimen in the Museum. SOLITARY SNIPE. Scolopax major, Gmelin. French, "Grande becassine."
On Woodpeckers, Macgillivray, 'Hist. of British Birds, vol. iii. 1840, pp. 84, 88, 89, and 95. On the Hoopoe, Mr. Swinhoe, in 'Proc. Zoolog. Soc. June 23, 1863 and 1871, p. 348. On the Night-jar, Audubon, ibid. vol. ii. p. 255, and 'American Naturalist, 1873, p. 672. Zool. Outer tail-feather of Scolopax frenata.
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