136 Mr. H. Seebohm on the Genus Scolopax. 



feathers, and one as many as twenty-four. This extraordinary 

 development of additional tail-feathers in East Siberia is 

 very remarkable^ and is not confined to the Snipes. Two 

 species of Ground-Thrushes, Geocichla varia from East 

 Siberia and G. horsfieldi from Java (the latter obviously the 

 result of a comparatively recent emigration from the former) , 

 are distinguished from all other Thrushes by having fourteen 

 instead of twelve tail-feathers ; and the Sea-Eagle of Kamt- 

 schatka also stands alone amongst his congeners as the pos- 

 sessor of fourteen tail-feathers. It is perhaps impossible to 

 discover any rational explanation of these curious facts. 

 Modern evolutionists have invented the hypothesis of Sexual 

 Selection to explain those facts which appear to be incapable 

 of explanation by the theory of Natural Selection. It seems 

 impossible to imagine any benefit that could accrue to a 

 species by increasing the number of its tail-feathers; and 

 philosophers will probably explain this curious series of 

 facts by attributing it to the influence of sexual selection, on 

 the same grounds that many a man, not a philosopher, ex- 

 plains an action of which he is unable to give a rational 

 defence, by saying that it was a ivhim of his ivife ! 



20. Scolopax ^quatorialis *. 



By far the handsomest species of Snipe is that which in- 

 habits Africa south and east of the Great Desert ; and it is 

 specially interesting because the geographical distribution of 

 it and its allies presents a parallel case to that of the three 

 species just mentioned. The Ethiopian Snipe is remarkable 

 for the clear definition of its markings and the velvety gloss 

 of the black on its upper parts. Evidently it is very nearly 



* This species is often called Scolopax m'grijjennis, a name given by 

 Bonaparte to a Snipe said to have come from the Cape. He describes 

 the outer web of the first primary as black, whence the name iiigripemus. 

 As, however, the Ethiopian Snipe happens to be distinguished from the 

 tither species which breeds in the Ethiopian Region, and from the spe- 

 cies which only winters there, by the fact that the outer webs of its first 

 primaries are white, there can be little doubt th.at the name is a slip of the 

 pen for nlhipeimis ; but the adoption of either name is, of course, out of 

 the question. 



