3274 Tue ZooLoctst—OcToBEr, 1872. 
A. Gordon, of the 57th Regiment, and is mentioned by Mr. Thompson in 
the Appendix to the third volume of his Nat. Hist. Ireland, p. 447; and 
a great snipe (G. major) shot at Camelford, Cornwall, in November, 1868, 
had eighteen instead of sixteen feathers in the tail (‘ Zoologist,, 1868, p. 
1482). In a large series of examples more or less variation of colour 
prevails, and in general appearance the American snipe (called by sportsmen 
in America the “ English Snipe”) certainly resembles very closely the Old 
World species. It is, however, smaller and less robust; has a shorter and 
more slender bill; a shorter tarsus and middle toe ; a tail of sixteen feathers, 
with the outer one on each side much narrower; the dorsal plumage more 
variegated, that is, less strongly marked with longitudinal buff streaks; and 
the flanks and axillary plumes more conspicuously barred with dark umber- 
brown. The measurements vary as follows :-— 
Bill. Tarsus. Mid. toe. 
Common Snipe. - - 2-7 in. 1:3 in. 1°53 in. 
Wilson’s Snipe. - E oy ae 130, f-2..35 
the middle toe being measured without the claw. In a large series of both 
species I do not find that the length of wing differs to any appreciable 
extent, the average length from the carpus to the end of the first primary 
being in both about five inches.—J. E. Harting ; 24, Lincoln's Inn Fields. . 
Occurrence off Penzance of a Syngnathus hitherto unobserved as 
British.—I have taken a Syngnathus, which I believe to be hitherto 
unobserved as a British fish. Yarrell, Couch and Gosse all agree in 
describing as British fish six species of Syngnathus only, of which two 
(S, acus and S. typhle) have true caudal fins, two (S. equoreus and 
S. anguineus) have rudimentary caudal fins, and two (S. Ophidion and 
S. lumbriciformis) have no trace of any caudal fin, but have a round tail 
ending in a fine point. Couch mentions also a doubtful specimen (belonging 
to a species having a caudal fin), of which the specific character was “a 
narrow membrane which ran along the ridge of the back to near the dorsal 
fin” (vol. iv. p. 357). He figures it as a variety of S. equoreus. My 
specimen differs specifically from the four first-named species (including 
Couch’s doubtful specimen) in having no trace of any caudal fin. It is not 
S. lumbriciformis, which I know well; and it differs from S. Ophidion in 
having a remarkably blunt tail, and in having no scales or plates along the 
side.* Full two-thirds also of the dorsal fin are in advance of the vent, and 
the fin-rays of this fin are forty-three, with the last ray bifid. Its colours also 
are peculiar: it resembles S. Ophidion in the straightness and proportions 
* The plates of S. Ophidion are much less strongly marked than those of the 
other species.—T. C. 
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