Gallinago

Gallinago is a genus of birds in the wader family Scolopacidae, containing 18 species.

Taxonomy

The name Gallinago was introduced by the French zoologist Mathurin Jacques Brisson in 1760 as a subdivision of the genus Scolopax.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Brisson did not use Carl Linnaeus's binomial system of nomenclature and although many of Brisson's genera had been adopted by ornithologists, his subdivision of genera were generally ignored.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref><ref>Template:Citation</ref> The American Ornithologists' Union switched to Capella in 1921<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> and in 1934 the American ornithologist James L. Peters used Capella for the woodcocks in his influential Check-list of Birds of the World.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> 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 as the type species.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The scientific name gallinago is Neo-Latin for a woodcock or snipe from Latin gallina, "hen" and the suffix -ago, "resembling".<ref name="job">Template:Cite book</ref>

The genus contains 18 species:<ref name=ioc>Template:Cite web</ref>

Image	Scientific name	Common name	Distribution
File:GallinagoImperialisSmit.jpg	Gallinago imperialis	Imperial snipe	northern Andes
File:Gallinago jamesoni, Quijos, Ecuador 09.jpg	Gallinago jamesoni	Jameson's snipe	northern Andes
File:Gallinago stricklandii, Punta Arenas, Chile (260094433).jpg	Gallinago stricklandii	Fuegian snipe	Chile to Tierra del Fuego
File:Solitary Snipe imported from iNaturalist photo 252531185 on 13 June 2024.jpg	Gallinago solitaria	Solitary snipe	southern Siberia, Mongolia and northern China winters to eastern Alpide belt, northeast Asia and southern China
File:Snipe sp.jpg	Gallinago nemoricola	Wood snipe	eastern Himalayas to central China ; winters to southern India and Indochina
File:Gallinago media, Belarus 1.jpg	Gallinago media	Great snipe	northwestern palearctic ; winters to sub-Saharan Africa
-	Gallinago megala	Swinhoe's snipe	Mongolia, southern Siberia and Manchuria winters to Indomalaya and northern Australia
File:Pintaile snipe - 15.jpg	Gallinago stenura	Pin-tailed snipe	Siberia ; winters to Indomalaya
File:Latham's snipe.jpg	Gallinago hardwickii	Latham's snipe	Sakhalin and Japan ; winters to eastern Australia
File:African Snipe, Gallinago nigripennis at Marievale Nature Reserve, Gauteng,South Africa (43684116990).jpg	Gallinago nigripennis	African snipe	Sub-Saharan Africa
File:Herîsorik.jpg	Gallinago gallinago	Common snipe	northern palearctic ; winters to southern palearctic and Africa
File:Gallinago delicata Huntley Meadows.jpg	Gallinago delicata	Wilson's snipe	North America winters to norwestern South America
File:Gallinago undulata.jpeg	Gallinago undulata	Giant snipe	South America
File:GallinagoNobilisSmit.jpg	Gallinago nobilis	Noble snipe	northern Andes
File:Gallinago andina, Huancabamba, Pasco, Peru 1.jpg	Gallinago andina	Puna snipe	puna grassland
File:Gallinago macrodactyla 455072712.jpg	Gallinago macrodactyla	Madagascar snipe	eastern Highlands of Madagascar
File:Narceja.jpg	Gallinago paraguaiae	Pantanal snipe	South America
File:Magellanic Snipe (Gallinago magellanica), southern Argentina (15771658508).jpg	Gallinago magellanica	Magellanic snipe	from Chile to Tierra del Fuego and Falkland Islands

This genus contains the majority of the world's snipe species, 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. Most have distinctive displays, usually given at dawn or dusk. They search for invertebrates 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 or Early Pliocene deposits (c. 5 mya) of Lee Creek Mine, USA. The large West Indian 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.