234 Mr. R. Swinhoe on Amoy Ornithology. 



the middle of October; but the north-east monsoon has begun 

 early this year. G. stenura is usually here a little in advance of 

 G. scolopacina. By the way, I see some notes on the arrival of 

 Snipes nearCalcutta, by Capt. R. C.Beavan (P. Z. S. 1865, p. 690). 

 His field-log is very valuable to those interested in the migra- 

 tions of Indian Birds ; and long may he continue to favour us 

 with such scraps ! I might assist him with a hint how to dis- 

 criminate the species of Snipe even " in a plucked state." The 

 tail, of course, is the first distinguishing character between G. 

 stenura and G. scolopacina ; the second is the underwing, the 

 patches of white on the axillaries of the latter being wanting in 

 the former, which has those parts continuously waved over with 

 dark lines ; but the character useful for telling the bird in a 

 nude state is the shape of the bill. Look down on the surface 

 of the bill : in G. stenura it keeps on contracting towards its 

 tip, in G. scolopacina it expands into a narrow spatula at the 

 nervous portion. This last is a sure and constant character, and 

 one that I have never found to fail. 



Oct. 23rd.— In my list of the Birds of China (P. Z. S. 1863, 

 p. 317), &c., I introduced {no. SIO)" Eu7-hinorht/nchus pygmcsus " 

 as a Chinese species on the faith of Limicola pygmcea of Mid- 

 dendorff. This last, Mr. A. Newton pointed out to me, referred 

 to no. 301 {Tringa platyrhy7icha, Temm.) ; and I therefore can- 

 celled the insertion (P. Z. S. 1864, p. 272). But now a specimen 

 of Eurhinorhynchus has actually occurred here. It was brought 

 to me by my sea-coast hunter this morning. But if Mitchell, 

 in Mr. Gray's * Genera,' figures the bill correctly, it cannot be 

 the true E. pygmaus ; and if Dr. Jerdon (B. Ind. iii. p. 692) 

 describes accurately the form found on the coast of India, which 

 he considers identical with the European species, neither can it 

 be that species. I see, however, that Blyth procured in India a 

 form which he considered distinct and described as E. orientalis. 

 Both the eastern and western forms may occur on the coasts of 

 the Indian peninsula, as, from other instances that have fallen 

 under my attention, the eastern and western southward migra- 

 tions of birds appear to culminate in the Indian region ; and 

 therefore possibly Messrs. Blyth and Jerdon are both right, but 

 the birds that they handled were different. At all events, until 



