314 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



follow our summer migrants into their winter quarters, and to 

 ascertain whereabouts, and in what manner, those birds nest and 

 rear their young which visit us only during the winter months. 

 With this general advance in the science of Ornithology it is 

 not surprising that we have come to learn more even about so 

 common a bird as the Woodcock, sought after as it is not only 

 by naturalists and by sportsmen of every degree who are fond of 

 shooting, but also by that unthinking class of persons who expect 

 to have gibier of some kind in season or out of season, and care 

 not where it comes from, or how it is obtained, so long as it 

 appears in their menu. 



A glance at Dr. Hoffman's monograph suffices to show that 

 it has been written for the two first-named classes ; for the 

 naturalist who is fond of shooting, and for the ardent sportsman 

 who in the intervals of sport may like to read something of the 

 history and habits of a bird which, from the nature of its haunts 

 and its mode of flight, is at all times worth pursuit in the proper 

 season, and, in favoured localities, afi:brds the most enjoyable 

 kind of shooting. 



Commencing with some remarks upon the sj'stematic position 

 of the Woodcock in the class Aves, Dr. Hoffmann gives a brief 

 review of the different species of Woodcock and Snipe known to 

 Science, with their geographical distribution, based in a great 

 measure upon Mr. Seebohm's article on this subject which 

 appeared in 'The Ibis' for April, 1886, and adopting the 

 difi'erentiations and trinomial nomenclature there proposed. As 

 Dr. Hoff'man is not primarily responsible for the views which he 

 has thus adopted, but merely takes them upon trust, this is 

 perhaps hardly the place in which to criticise them, or we might 

 be disposed to question some of the opinions here reiterated, 

 and show cause for reducing the number of species enumerated. 

 Moreover, such a course is rendered the more unnecessary from 

 our expectation that in Mr. Seebohm's forthcoming work on the 

 Limicola he will see reason to modify some of the views which 

 he has expressed even as recently as in April, 1886. We shall 

 at least expect to see Scolopax rosenhergi, Schlegel, identified 

 with Scolopax saturata, Horsfield, and Scolopax solitaria, Hodgson, 

 allowed to include the Japanese form which, under the trinomial 

 Scolopax solitaria japonica, has been raised to the dignity of a 

 subspecies by Mr. Seebohm in the article quoted. A closer study 



