''Gallinago'' is a

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial n ...

of birds in the

wader 245px, A flock of Red_knot.html" ;"title="Dunlins and Red knot">Dunlins and Red knots Waders or shorebirds are birds of the order Charadriiformes commonly found wikt:wade#Etymology 1, wading along shorelines and mudflats in order to foraging, ...

family Scolopacidae, containing 18 species.

Taxonomy

The name ''Gallinago'' was introduced by the French zoologist

Mathurin Jacques Brisson Mathurin Jacques Brisson (; 30 April 1723 – 23 June 1806) was a French zoologist and natural philosopher. Brisson was born at Fontenay-le-Comte. The earlier part of his life was spent in the pursuit of natural history; his published wo ...

in 1760 as a subdivision of the

''Scolopax''. Brisson did not use

Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, ...

binomial system of nomenclature In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, b ...

and although many of Brisson's genera had been adopted by ornithologists, his subdivision of genera were generally ignored. Instead, the erection of the genus ''Gallinago'' for the snipes was credited to the German zoologist Carl Ludwig Koch in a book published in 1816. But in 1920 it was discovered that the German naturalist Johann Samuel Traugott Frenzel had erected the genus ''Capella'' for the snipes in 1801. As his publication predated Koch's use of ''Gallinago'' it took precedence. The

American Ornithologists' Union The American Ornithological Society (AOS) is an ornithological organization based in the United States. The society was formed in October 2016 by the merger of the American Ornithologists' Union (AOU) and the Cooper Ornithological Society. Its ...

switched to ''Capella'' in 1921 and in 1934 the American ornithologist James L. Peters used ''Capella'' for the woodcocks in his influential ''Check-list of Birds of the World''. This all changed in 1956 when the

International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is an organization dedicated to "achieving stability and sense in the scientific naming of animals". Founded in 1895, it currently comprises 26 commissioners from 20 countries. Orga ...

ruled that ''Gallinago'' Brisson 1760 should have priority for the genus with the common snipe as the

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen( ...

. The scientific name ''gallinago'' is

New Latin New Latin (also called Neo-Latin or Modern Latin) is the revival of Literary Latin used in original, scholarly, and scientific works since about 1500. Modern scholarly and technical nomenclature, such as in zoological and botanical taxonomy ...

for a woodcock or

snipe A snipe is any of about 26 wading bird species in three genera in the family Scolopacidae. They are characterized by a very long, slender bill, eyes placed high on the head, and cryptic/ camouflaging plumage. The '' Gallinago'' snipes have a n ...

from

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power ...

''gallina'', "hen" and the suffix ''-ago'', "resembling". The genus contains 18 species: *

Solitary snipe The solitary snipe (''Gallinago solitaria'') is a small stocky wader. It is found in the Palearctic from northeast Iran to Japan and Korea. Description This is a large and heavy snipe 29–31 cm long with a stocky body and relatively sho ...

, ''Gallinago solitaria'' * Latham's snipe, ''Gallinago hardwickii'' * Wood snipe, ''Gallinago nemoricola'' * Pin-tailed snipe, ''Gallinago stenura'' * Swinhoe's snipe, ''Gallinago megala'' * African snipe, ''Gallinago nigripennis'' * Madagascar snipe, ''Gallinago macrodactyla'' * Magellanic snipe, ''Gallinago magellanica'' *

Great snipe The great snipe (''Gallinago media'') is a small stocky wader in the genus '' Gallinago''. This bird's breeding habitat is marshes and wet meadows with short vegetation in north-eastern Europe, including north-western Russia. Great snipes are mi ...

, ''Gallinago media'' * Common snipe, ''Gallinago gallinago'' *

Wilson's snipe Wilson's snipe (''Gallinago delicata'') is a small, stocky shorebird. The genus name ''gallinago'' is New Latin for a woodcock or snipe from Latin ''gallina'', "hen" and the suffix ''-ago'', "resembling". The specific ''delicata'' is Latin for ...

, ''Gallinago delicata'' * Pantanal snipe, ''Gallinago paraguaiae'' * Puna snipe, ''Gallinago andina'' * Noble snipe, ''Gallinago nobilis'' * Giant snipe, ''Gallinago undulata'' * Fuegian snipe, ''Gallinago stricklandii'' * Jameson's snipe, ''Gallinago jamesoni'' * Imperial snipe, ''Gallinago imperialis'' This genus contains the majority of the world's snipe

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of ...

, the other two extant genera being '' Coenocorypha'', with three species, and '' Lymnocryptes'', the jack snipe. Morphologically, they are all similar, with a very long slender bill and cryptic

plumage Plumage ( "feather") is a layer of feathers that covers a bird and the pattern, colour, and arrangement of those feathers. The pattern and colours of plumage differ between species and subspecies and may vary with age classes. Within species, ...

. Most have distinctive displays, usually given at dawn or dusk. They search for

invertebrate Invertebrates are a paraphyletic group of animals that neither possess nor develop a vertebral column (commonly known as a ''backbone'' or ''spine''), derived from the notochord. This is a grouping including all animals apart from the chordate ...

s in the mud with a "sewing-machine" action of their long bills. Fossil bones of some undescribed ''Gallinago'' species most similar to the

great snipe The great snipe (''Gallinago media'') is a small stocky wader in the genus '' Gallinago''. This bird's breeding habitat is marshes and wet meadows with short vegetation in north-eastern Europe, including north-western Russia. Great snipes are mi ...

have been recovered in Late

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recent" ...

or Early

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58mya Mya may refer to: Brands and product names * Mya (program), an intelligent personal assistant created by Motorola * Mya (TV channel), an Italian Television channel * Midwest Young Artists, a comprehensive youth music program Codes * Burmese ...

) of Lee Creek Mine, USA. The large West Indian species ''

Gallinago kakuki ''Gallinago kakuki'' is a prehistoric species of Gallinago, snipe in the family Sandpiper, Scolopacidae that was once endemic to the West Indies. Fossils of this species are known from the Bahamas, Cuba, and Cayman Brac in the Cayman Islands. '' ...

'' went extinct during the late Quaternary period, and despite its distribution may actually be more closely related to Old World snipe species than New World ones.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q786045 Bird genera