''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 nom ...

of birds in the

wader 245px, A flock of Dunlins and Red knots">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 mudflat ...

family

Scolopacidae Sandpipers are a large family, Scolopacidae, of waders. They include many species called sandpipers, as well as those called by names such as curlew and snipe. The majority of these species eat small invertebrates picked out of the mud or soil. ...

, 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 works ...

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 Nobility#Ennoblement, ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné#Blunt, Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalise ...

's binomial system of nomenclature 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 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 ruled that ''Gallinago'' Brisson 1760 should have priority for the genus with the

common snipe The common snipe (''Gallinago gallinago'') is a small, stocky wader native to the Old World. The breeding habitats are marshes, bogs, tundra and wet meadows throughout the Palearctic. In the north, the distribution limit extends from Iceland ov ...

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 specime ...

. 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 The woodcocks are a group of seven or eight very similar living species of wading birds in the genus ''Scolopax''. The genus name is Latin for a snipe or woodcock, and until around 1800 was used to refer to a variety of waders. The English name ...

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 ...

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 of the ...

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

Latham's snipe Latham's snipe (''Gallinago hardwickii''), also known as the Japanese snipe, is a medium-sized, long-billed, migratory snipe of the East Asian–Australasian Flyway. Description The snipe is 29–33 cm long, with a wingspan of 50–54 ...

, ''Gallinago hardwickii'' *

Wood snipe The wood snipe (''Gallinago nemoricola'') is a species of snipe which breeds in the Himalayas of northern India, Nepal, Bhutan and southern China. In winter, it occurs at lower altitudes in the Himalayas, as a regular visitor in small numbers to ...

, ''Gallinago nemoricola'' *

Pin-tailed snipe Pintail snipe head and bill The pin-tailed snipe or pintail snipe (''Gallinago stenura'') is a species of bird in the family Scolopacidae, the sandpipers. Distribution It breeds in northern Russia and migrates to spend the non-breeding season i ...

, ''Gallinago stenura'' * Swinhoe's snipe, ''Gallinago megala'' *

African snipe The African snipe (''Gallinago nigripennis'') also known as the Ethiopian snipe, is a small stocky wader. It breeds in eastern and southern Africa in wet mountain moorland and swamps at altitudes of . When not breeding it disperses widely, includ ...

, ''Gallinago nigripennis'' *

Madagascar snipe The Madagascar snipe (''Gallinago macrodactyla'') is a small stocky wader. It breeds only in the humid eastern half of Madagascar, from sea-level up to 2,700 m, being more common above 700 m. It is bird migration, non-migratory. Description This ...

, ''Gallinago macrodactyla'' * Magellanic snipe, ''Gallinago magellanica'' * Great snipe, ''Gallinago media'' *

Common snipe The common snipe (''Gallinago gallinago'') is a small, stocky wader native to the Old World. The breeding habitats are marshes, bogs, tundra and wet meadows throughout the Palearctic. In the north, the distribution limit extends from Iceland ov ...

, ''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 "d ...

, ''Gallinago delicata'' * Pantanal snipe, ''Gallinago paraguaiae'' * Puna snipe, ''Gallinago andina'' *

Noble snipe The noble snipe (''Gallinago nobilis'') is a small stocky wader. It breeds in the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela above or just below the treeline. It is entirely sedentary. Description This 30–32.5 cm long snipe has a ...

, ''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 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 appropriate s ...

, the other two extant genera being ''

Coenocorypha The austral snipes, also known as the New Zealand snipes or tutukiwi, are a genus, ''Coenocorypha'', of tiny birds in the sandpiper family, which are now only found on New Zealand's outlying islands. There are currently three living species an ...

'', with three species, and ''

Lymnocryptes The jack snipe or jacksnipe (''Lymnocryptes minimus'') is a small stocky wader. It is the smallest snipe, and the only member of the genus ''Lymnocryptes''. Features such as its sternum make it quite distinct from other snipes or woodcocks. Et ...

'', the jack snipe. Morphologically, they are all similar, with a very long slender bill and cryptic plumage. 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 have been recovered in Late

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), 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 mea ...

or Early

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58mya) of Lee Creek Mine, USA. The large

West Indian A West Indian is a native or inhabitant of the West Indies (the Antilles and the Lucayan Archipelago). For more than 100 years the words ''West Indian'' specifically described natives of the West Indies, but by 1661 Europeans had begun to use it ...

species '' Gallinago kakuki'' 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