Osteology of the Chatham Island Snipe. 691 



The Chatham Island Suipe is resident in the extreme 

 south, and, like many other types of Waders found in 

 southern or ultra-southern latitudes, its characters present 

 us with a picture in interesting contrast with those proper 

 to more northern types. 



Taking, for instance, Waders whose present distribution 

 is confined roughly to regions south of the equator, and 

 excluding certain migratory types or types with a world- 

 wide range, Ave find in this southern half of the globe 

 many Waders whose characters seem to present a general 

 picture which can only be taken to correspond to a geo- 

 logical era anterior to the present one. The impression 

 which we get, and the conclusion Avhich it seems difficult to 

 escape, appears to be, that this peculiar southern Wader- 

 fauna has been forced southwards towards the southern 

 extremities of the great land-masses of the world by adverse 

 conditions, either climatic, physical, or faunal, which obtained 

 in the north ; and that it represents to a great extent the 

 relics of a fauna which had at one time a more extensive 

 northerly distribution or origin. 



Examples among the southern Waders of such an old- 

 time fauna which occur to one at once are the following : — 

 The Jacanas (Jacanidse), the Painted Snipe (Rhynchaeidse), 

 the Stone-Curlews (ffidicnemidse), the Seed-Snipes (Atta- 

 gidse), and the Sheathbills (Chionidse), together with such 

 peculiar types as the Slender-billed Plover (Oreophilus), 

 the Chilian Sandpiper {Phegornis), the Magellanic Plover 

 (Pluvianellus) , the New Zealand Plover [Thinornis), the 

 Black-fronted Dotterel of Australia (.E/seyorms), and, finally, 

 that group in which the Chatham Island Snipe may itself be 

 included, viz., Seebohm's "semi- Woodcocks." These "semi- 

 Woodcocks'' of Seebohm comprise, in addition to the genus 

 Coenocorypha, such highly interesting South American forms 

 as Gallinago stricklandi Gray of the Chilian Andes, G.jame- 

 soni Bonaparte of the Peruvian Andes, G. imperialis Sclater of 

 Colombia, Homopfilura undulata (Bodd.) of the mountains of 

 Guiana, and H. undulata gigantea (Natterer) of Brazil. These 

 last are found in very elevated forested mountains, sometimes 



SER. X. — VOL. 111. 3 A 



