128 



BIRDS OF THE COMMANDER ISLANDS. 



Now in regard to the size. From tbe measurements of the Com- 

 mander Islands birds given in my " Oru. Exj)!. Kamtscb.," page 107, and 

 those of the three Japanese specimens below, it will be seen that the 

 diliereuce between the sexes iS very small, in fact smaller than the indi- 

 vidual variation, the females being, on the average, a trifle larger than 

 the males. In addition to the measurements given I may state that the 

 length of the tarsus in the Commander Islands birds varies between 30 

 and 32™'". 



A direct comparison of the dimensions as measured by me and those 

 recorded by Dr. Blasius is hardly justifiable, for our methods of measur- 

 ing may be entirely different. They should, therefore, be considered 

 separately. It is then evident that in my series the bird which accord- 

 ing to its coloration should be a pyrrliotliorax does not differ as to size 

 from those which are typical mongola. In the list of dimensions given 

 by Dr. Blasius we are at once struck by the fact that the individual 

 variation of the wing o^ mongola is 7""", and that oi iiyrrhothorax is 1""", 

 while the difference between the alleged species is only 3""". Further- 

 more, in the former the variation of the tarsus is only ^'""' ; in the latter 

 it is 3""", while the difference between both amounts to no more than 

 J"". In other words, the individual variation is considerably^ in fact 

 many times, greater than the diagnostic difference. 



For the present, therefore, I see no reason for changing the verdict ot 

 Harting (Ibis, 1870, p. 384 seqii.) that 2)yrrhothorax is a synonym oH onon- 

 gala. 



Measurements. 



40 (4.'»). Gallinago gallinago (Lin.) 110. 



A regular summer visitor; tolerably common in Bering Island.* 



* 111 my Synopsis of the Birds of Ktiintscbatka I enumerated the second species of 

 snipe as Gallinago hyemalis (Eversm.) with a query. It now appears that I was cor- 

 rect in questiouiug the specilic appellation, since Mr. Seehohm (Ibis, 1886, p. 129) as- 

 serts that " Scolojjax hyemalis of Eversmann (Bull. Soc. Mosc. 1845, j). 257, pi. vi), from 

 the Altai Mountains, is unquestionably the Himalayan bird," or the true G. solitaria of 

 Hodgson. The correct name of the Eastern or Japanese Solitary Snipe seema to be 

 Gallinago solitaria japonica, as originally proposed by Bonaparte. Mr. Seebohra {I. c.) 

 denies the right of Bonaparte to be quoted in the present connection, and would sub- 

 stitute Swiuhoe as the authority for the name, but it seems as if he labors under a 

 mistake. He says, " The Gallinago japonica oi \ionu,]}avXt^ (Couipt. Rend., 1856, p. 715) 

 is apiiarently a nomen nudum Avithout description of any kind, and may belong to any 

 of the half-dozon snijies of Japan." Now, in the first place, no such a name is found 

 oni)age715of any of the two volumes of the "ComptesEeudus" i)ublished in 1856. lu 



