'.'DO Letters, Extracts, and Notes. 



had the outer webs strongly barred with brown, the inner 

 webs only faintly so. The minor and marginal coverts of 

 the under surface of the wing were dull black. Axillaries 

 black, with a greenish iridescence, and in certain lights shew- 

 ing faint, barely perceptible traces of the normal barring so 

 characteristic of these feathers. In this case the barring was 

 of the close type. 



There were fourteen tail-feathers. These were pointed, 

 had black tips, and an irregular subterminal bar of black, the 

 ground-colour being tawny brown. The base of the feather 

 was black; and this colour extended forwards to within a 

 short distance of the subterminal bar as a roughly triradiate 

 wedge, the median radius running along the shaft. 



The neck-feathers of the under surface were tawny brown 

 with dull black shafts, giving a mottled appearance. These 

 feathers extended upwards behind the auriculars as far as 

 the eye, thus cutting off the continuity of the mask between 

 the face and occiput. 



The breast-feathers resembled those of the neck, but had 

 in addition two bars of dull black across the vanes. Feathers 

 of the abdomen smoke-coloured inclining to sepia. 



Under tail-coverts tawny brown, with broad double bars 

 of black across the webs. 



The colour of the bill was brown, black at the tip, while 

 the legs and toes were bluish green : these colours, however, 

 were, it must be remembered, examined four days after 

 death. 



Though originally described as a distinct species, " Sabine's" 

 Snipe (Scolopax sabinii of Vigors) is now, by common con- 

 sent, regarded as a melanoid variety of the Common Snipe 

 (Gallinago coslestis). But this description hardly expresses 

 the truth, inasmuch as a merely melanoid variety should still 

 shew traces through the dark pigment of the normal plumage 

 pattern. Save in the case of the axillaries, however, neither 

 this example nor the specimens of this bird in the British 

 Museum indicate any such traces. In the matter of the 

 axillaries, considerable variation seems to obtain between 

 the various known examples of this bird. 



