716 Miss M. D. Havilaud on the 



true Soipe-form from the Eroliine stirp, or do the Wood- 

 cocksj the Snipes, the Jack-Snipe, and the Chatham Island 

 Snipe merely represent so many sudden mutational forms 

 derived from a common but independent Scolopacine stock ? 



(5) The so-called Painted Snipe (Rhynchaa) is neither 

 Scolopacine nor Ralline. It is, however, Limicoline, possibly 

 a surviving relic of a primitive Limicoline stock. 



(6) Judging from the slight change in the relative pro- 

 portions of the constituent bones of the pectoral limb and 

 the absence of any signs of degeneration in the carina of 

 the sternum, the diminishing powers of flight in C. pusilla 

 is not a matter of long standing, 



(7) Ccenocorypha pusilla and its antipodean allies are 

 " living fossils." They belong, strictly speaking, not to the 

 present, but to a past geological period. The fact that they 

 still exist and that we are still privileged to see them 

 " in tlie flesh " is an ' accident,' the result of the isolation 

 of the Chathams, Aucklands, and Snares, and their con- 

 sequent freedom until recent times from carnivorous animals. 

 They have persisted in this their last ultra-southern retreat 

 beyond, so to speak, the allotted span of their race, and we 

 may reasonably regard this generalised genus of " Snipes " 

 as having formerly a much more extended distribution. 



XXXVI. — Note on the Nestling Plumage of the Asiatic 

 Golden Plover (Charadrius dominicanus fulvus). By 

 Maud D. IIaviland. 



The young of this species was first described by Mr. H. 

 L. Popham (Ibis, 1898, p. 512} from specimens that he 

 obtained on the lower Yenesei. He describes it as being 

 more spotted, with white about the sides of the head and 

 neck, than are the young of Charadrius apricarius. 



On July 20, 1914, I obtained four newly-hatched chicks 

 from an identified nest on the tundra near Golchika, lower 



