LIMICOLi£. 341 



The Painted Snipe lias been only once found in Yezzo (Seebolim, 

 IbiSj 1884, p. 178), but is a common resident in Southern Japan. 

 There is an example in the Swinhoe collection from Yokohama 

 (Swinhoe, Ibis, 1877, p. 146) ; and there are four in the Pryer Col- 

 lection from the same locality. Mr. Ringer has sent examples to the 

 Norwich ^luseum obtained at Nagasaki (Blakiston and Pryer, Trans. 

 As. Soc. Japan, 188.2, p. 122), where it was also procured by the 

 Siebold Expedition (Temminck and Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, Aves, 

 p. 113). 



The Painted Snipe breeds in China, India, and South Africa, and 

 is one of the few examples of tropical species which breed in Japan. 



The genus Scolopax is a remarkably isolated one, and is easily 

 diagnosed from all other genera of the Gallo-Gralline group of birds 

 by well-marked ostcological characters. Its affinities are not so close 

 with Tringa and the other genera of Limicolae containing species 

 whose toes, like those of the Snipes, are cleft to the base, as with 

 Limosa and Macrorhamjihus. 



In most birds the eye is more or less protected above by an over- 

 hanging orbital septum which forms an arch springing from the 

 postfrontal to the lachrymal. In a few genera [Dendrocygna, and 

 many genera of the Psittacidse amongst desmognathous birds) the 

 orbital septum is continued below the eye as well as above it, thus 

 forming a complete ring. This is the case in every species of Scolopax 

 which I have been able to examine, including the Woodcock and the 

 Jack Snipe, and is not the case, so far as I know, in any other species 

 of schizognathous birds. The Snipes further differ from Charadrius, 

 Vanelius, Totanus, &c., in having a strongly marked nasal keel to 

 strengthen the upper mandible. It might be regarded as an ossified 

 nasal septum, but it is of a very different character to that found in 

 the Raptores or Striges. It thickens above as it joins the nasal pro- 

 cesses of the premaxilla, and behind as it nears the ethmoid. It is 

 in every sense a maxillary keel, and has no connexion whatever with 

 the maxillo-palatines. This maxillary keel is as well-developed in 

 Limosa as in Scolopax, and nearly as well in Macrorhamphus . It is 

 more or less present in Tringa and Erennetes, but entirely absent in 

 Vanelius, Charadrius, and Totanus. If it be regarded as a good 

 character, it completely disposes of the importance hitherto attached 

 to the presence or absence of any remains of the webs which probably 



