352 RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 



been, had Linn^ been consistent in arranging under it all the species 

 that possessed the character he assigned to it, he ought to have added 

 to it the greater part of his Tringce, many of which took rank unper- 

 ceived in both genera. Cuvier rectified this course, thus forming a vast 

 genus Scolopax, more extensive than our vfhole family of Scolopaeidoe. 

 His subgenus Scolopax corresponds, however, exactly to my genus of 

 that name, which I subdivide into three natural subgenera, Rusticola, 

 Scolopax, and Macroramphus, which is the present bird. Illiger first 

 reduced the genus Scolopax within proper limits, but including, it is 

 true, Rhynchcea, since established by Cuvier as a genus. Modern 

 ornithologiets in general agree with us, except that some, as Vieillot 

 and Savi, consider Rusticola a true genus, leaving the name of Scolopax 

 to the rest. Macroramphus and Scolopax are in fact more closely 

 related than is Rusticola to any of them. 



All the species of our genus Scolopax are very similar as to the bill, 

 which in all is long, slender, straight, compressed, especially at base, 

 where it is elevated, soft and flexible its whole length, with the point 

 depressed, dilated, tumid, and obtuse : owing to the desiccation of the 

 delicate nervous apparatus of this part, it becomes wrinkled after 

 death, exhibiting at the point a dorsal groove and numerous indenta- 

 tions. Both mandibles are furrowed to the middle on each side ; the 

 upper, serrated inside along the palate with spinelike processes pointing 

 backwards, is terminated by an internal knob ; the lower being shorter, 

 channelled, and somewhat truncated : the nostrils are in the furrows, 

 basal, marginal, linear and pervious, but half closed by a membrane. 

 The tongue is moderate, filiform and acute. The head is in all large, 

 compressed, and angular, low forward and high behind : the eyes are 

 very large, placed high and far back, but perhaps less so in the bird 

 which is more immediately the subject of our remarks : the neck is of 

 moderate length, and stout ; the body compressed and very fleshy. 



But if they have all these traits in common, the feet, tail, and winga 

 present material differences. The feet are in all, it is true, moderately 

 long, slender, and four-toed, there being to this no exception as in the 

 Tringce. But in Rusticola there is no naked space on the tibia, whilst 

 it exists, though small, in Scolopax, and is considerable in the present 

 subgenus. In this the tarsus is much longer than the middle toe, while 

 in the true Snipes it is subequal, and in the Woodcocks decidedly 

 shorter. In the present the outer toe is connected to the first joint 

 with the middle by a membrane, whilst in the two others all the toes 

 are cleft : in this and Scolopax the hind nail is falculate and acute, as 

 well as the others, and projects beyond the toe, which is not the case in 

 the Woodcocks, which have that nail quite blunt and drawn back. On 

 the other hand, Macroramphus agrees with Rusticola in the tail, that 

 part having the regular number of twelve feathers, whilst in the typical 



