Tue ZooLocist—Ocroser, 1872. 3273 
pusilla, but Baillon’s crake, which according to the undermentioned authors 
is smaller than the little crake, and somewhat differently coloured and 
marked, being distinctly and regularly barred on the sides, and towards the 
vent with black and white, as my bird was. Macgillivray says that Baillon’s 
crake is 7 inches in length; Yarrell, 63 in.; Temminck, 6 pouces 7 ou 8 
lignes; Morris, 54 to 61 in.; Jardine, 4 in. at the most. This Scotch 
specimen, if not a young or dwarfish bird, must have been a rara avis, less 
in size than the common wren. Buffon might have accounted for it by 
saying, “Cette difference peut étre attribuée a influence du climat,.”— 
Henry Hadfield ; High Cliff, Ventnor, Isle of Wight, September 6, 1872. 
Whimbrel near Stratford and Dunlin near Leamington—On the 7th 
of September I obtained a whimbrel in the flesh at Stratford-upon-Avon, 
with the information that it had been shot at Alvestone, which is close by. 
Nor was this the only frequenter of the shore, which came under my obser- 
vation, for at one of the Leamington birdstuffer’s I saw a common dunlin, 
which had been recently shot, I was told, at Radford, a village about two 
miles from the town. The occurrence of such birds as these in the centre 
of England is interesting —J. H. Gurney, jun.; Manor House Hotel, 
Leamington. 
Supposed Occurrence of Wilson’s Snipe in Cornwall.—Having had 
an opportunity of examining the snipe referred to by Mr. Rodd in the J uly 
number of the ‘ Zoologist’ (S. S. 3149), I am enabled to say that it is not 
the American bird, G. Wilsoni, but a variety of the common species, with 
which English sportsmen are more or less familiar. Wilson’s snipe has 
sixteen feathers in the tail; the European bird has fourteen. The specimen 
in question, it is true, possesses sixteen, but in this respect only does it 
resemble the American species. The longer and stouter bill, longer tarsi 
and toes, broad outer tail-feathers, and general colouring, especially the 
colour of the axillary plumes, indicate its relationship with our well-known 
British bird. The American species, however, has occurred at least once in 
England, a specimen having been killed in the grounds of Mr. Charles 
Pascoe Grenfell, at Taplow Court, Bucks, in August, 1863. This specimen, 
as I have stated in my recently-published ‘ Handbook of British Birds’ (p. 
143), was forwarded in the flesh to Mr. Gould for identification, and while 
in his possession I had an opportunity of examining it. Strange to say, 
the tail-feathers numbered only fourteen, but in other respects it could not 
be distinguished from authenticated specimens of G. Wilsoni procured in 
America. It may have lost the outer tail-feather on each side, these 
feathers being shed during moult in pairs, or it may never have possessed 
more than fourteen, for it appears that the number of tail-feathers is not 
invariably constant. Besides the specimen with sixteen _ tail-feathers 
referred to by Mr. Rodd, another example of the common snipe with the 
like number was sent from Enniskillen to Sir William Jardine, by Mr. C. 
