Osteology of the Chatham Island Snipe. 697 



Rusticoline (short and thick with a pad under claw of 

 hind toe), its bill is Rusticoline, its tail and wings are 

 Gallinagine. But that these forms are relics of an ancient 

 and cosmopolitan common ancestor hailing from the north, 

 or that they are instances of parallelism, seems easier to 

 believe than that they owe any thing of their similarity to 

 an ancient Antarctic connecting-bridge. Moreover^ in a 

 review of the fishes obtained in the ' Terra Nova ' Expeilition, 

 together with a critical examination of the evidence derived 

 from the supposed relationships of Thylucinus of Tasmania 

 and the Sparassodonts of the Patagonian Miocene strata, 

 Mr. Tate Regan has lately dealt the hypothesis of an ancient 

 Antarctic bridge connecting the Australian continent with 

 South America in Tertiary times a severe blow (c/. Brit. 

 Mus. Eep. 'Terra Nova' Exp., Fishes, 1914). 



On the largest island of the Chatham group (Wharekauri 

 — thirty-six miles by twenty-seven) fossil remains of the 

 genus Coenocorypha were discovered by H. O. Forbes in 

 Pleistocene de])Osits, and received from him the specific name 

 of GaUinago chathamica. In his original description Forbes 

 simply states that this fossil form is " a very much larger 

 species than G. pusilla. The bill is three inches in length " 

 {cf. 'Ibis/ 1893, p. 545). 



While studying the skeletal features of C. ■pusilla, Miss D. 

 M. A. Bate kindly called my attention to the fact tliat there 

 was a large collection oi fossil bird-remains from Chatham 

 Island in the British Museum collection, and among them 

 we found specimens of the skulls of this fossil Snipe, 

 C. chathamica. Except that their measurements are larger, 

 the skulls of all the specimens of C. chathamica which I 

 have examined agree in every particular with the skull of 

 C. pusilla. It is interesting, however, to note that the 

 prsemaxillae of these fossil specimens vary greatly in length, 

 even if we allow for differences in the measurements due to 

 sex. Thus in C. chathamica the following represent measure- 

 ments from the tip of the prsemaxillae to a line forming tiie 

 proximal ends of the outer processes of the nasals : — 77 mm. 

 and 75 mm. (in the two types contained in the Brit. Mus. 



