Mr. H. Seebohui o?i the Genus Scolopax. 137 



allied to the Common Snipe, with which it agrees in having 

 the outer web of the first primary Avhite, and in having 

 the axillaries varying in colour from unspotted Avhite to white 

 regularly and broadly banded with brown; in size, also, it 

 scarcely differs, but it may always be distinguished by the 

 whiteness of its under tail-coverts and outer tail-feathers, and 

 by the narrowness of the outer tail-feather on each side, though 

 the number of tail-feathers is the same (fourteen) . The rela- 

 tionship is close ; but there cannot be much doubt that the 

 Ethiopian Snipe is specifically distinct from its Pahearctic 

 ally, though the winter range of the latter is said to join the 

 breeding-grounds of the former in Abyssinia. It is worthy 

 of note that the European Snipe is a migratory bird, and has 

 consequently more pointed wings than those of its Ethiopian 

 ally, which is a resident. The Ethiopian Snipe inhabits the 

 east of Africa from Abyssinia to the Cape, and is doubtfully 

 recorded from Benguela and Senegambia on the west, 



21. SCOLOPAX FRENATA PARAGUAY^. 



Closely related as are the Common and Ethiopian Snipes, 

 the latter has a still closer relationship to the Chilian Snipe, 

 which is apparently an intermediate form having some of 

 the characters of each. The wings are more rounded than 

 in the one and not so much so as in the other. The shape 

 of the tail-feathers (the outer on each side attenuated) re- 

 sembles that of the Ethiopian Snipe; but the colour of the 

 under tail-coverts and outer tail-feathers is the same as in 

 the Common Snipe. 



The only conclusion that appears probable seems to be 

 that the ancestors of the three forms were once residents 

 round the basin of the North Pole, and that they varied but 

 little from the present East- African and west South-American 

 species. After the Glacial epoch drove them south they 

 became residents in two colonies, one in the eastern hemi- 

 sphere and one in the western, in both of which they found 

 in the south conditions of life so similar to their former 

 existence that they have scarcely changed, though they have 

 been so long isolated. Both in the Old and in the New 



SER. V. VOL. IV. L 



