The specimen I obtained does not exactly agree with the descriptions I have read, the breast and sides being marked with zigzags of black, which are large and conspicuous on the flanks. The gizzard, which was muscular, contained a greenish unctuous mass, which showed traces of scales, or else the plated covering of _crustacea_. SNIPE.[110] _Gallinago Wilsoni._ _Scolopax gallinago_, +Wils.+—Aud. pl. 243. _Gallinago Wilsoni_, +Bonap.+ [110] Length 10³⁄₄ inches, expanse 17, flexure 5¹⁄₄, tail 2¹⁄₈, rictus 2⁵⁄₁₀, tarsus 1⁴⁄₁₀, middle toe 1⁵⁄₁₀. From November to April this beautiful and delicious bird is rather common in the morasses of Jamaica. In the fetid swamp that borders Bluefields Creek, I have principally met with it, running on the boggy places, some of which are dangerous and difficult of approach. When the tide comes in, however, the wading birds are driven to the edges of the morass, and may then be seen from the high road at Belmont, walking and feeding deliberately in the shallow water, among the slender stems of the black mangroves, not half a stone’s cast from the passers by. When the water stands just above the tarsal joint, the beak can just reach the bottom: and thus it walks deliberately about, momentarily feeling the mud with the sensitive beak-tip, striking with short perpendicular strokes. Now and then we perceive the motion of swallowing. So absorbed is the bird in its occupation, that I have shouted aloud, without its taking any notice; nor when its eye at last caught the motion of my hand, did it more than run, somewhat leisurely, away. The present season (1846–7,) seems to be more than usually favourable to the influx of the migrant _Grallæ_ from the north. Mr. Hill mentions, in a recent letter, that a friend, R. Wilkie, Esq., bagged twenty-two brace of Snipe in one day’s shooting, in October. * * * * * Other _Scolopacidæ_ that have been observed in Jamaica are the Knit (_Tringa Canutus_), the Sanderling (_Calidris Arenaria_), the Willet (_Catoptrophorus semipalmatus_), and the Little Woodcock (_Rusticola minor_). These I have not seen, but the first three, Mr. Hill writes me, are plentiful there, this winter. A second species of Woodcock, also, has been reported to have been met with in the island. +Fam.+—RALLIDÆ. (_The Rails._) CLUCKING-HEN.[111] _Aramus scolopaceus._ _Ardea scolopacea_, +Gmel.+—Aud. pl. 377. _Rallus ardeoïdes_, +Spix+. _Rallus gigas_, +Bonap.+ _Aramus scolopaceus_, +Vieill.+ [111] Length 25 inches, expanse 39¹⁄₂, flexure 13, tail 5, rictus 3⁹⁄₁₀, bare part of tibia 2, tarsus 4³⁄₁₀, middle-toe 3³⁄₁₀.