284 NOTES. 



that to which all English authors attatch it, vis., the Common 

 Great Snipe of China. 



But Prjevalski, I see, keeps megala of Swinhoe and heterocerca 

 distinct, and I think rightly so ; and I have to suggest for Dr. 

 Cabanis' consideration whether possibly his original heterocerca 

 was not a sthenura, and whether, instead of Swinhoe's name 

 megala having been transferred to his species heterocerca, the 

 fact may not be that he has now transferred his name hetero- 

 cerca to Swinhoe's species megala. 



I do not for a moment suppose that this has been knowingly 

 done. I only wish him' to verify by reference to the original 

 specimen whether it is or is not a sthenura. So far as his 

 description goes (and I must in all humility protest against 

 such imperfect and meagre descriptions) there is nothing to 

 render this improbable. His only specific characters are larger 

 size (size very variable in sthenura), difference in the number 

 of tail feathers (which number in sthenura varies from 20 to 

 28 in specimens now before me, and the narrow feathers on 

 each side from 5 to 9), and the greater length of the lateral ones 

 (the length of these being most variable in sthenura, so that 

 the spread tail is sometimes round and sometimes wedge- 

 shaped). 



Of course Dr. Cabanis remarked later, when describing his 

 6r. heteroeaca, " und hat im Schwanze jederseits eine verengte 

 steuerfeder mehr, ein Umstand, auf wekhen Gewicht zu legen 

 ist, da die Zahl der Steuerfedern in der Gruppe keineswegs 

 als zuiallag, sondevn mit als das sicherste Criterium fiir Unter- 

 scheidung der Arten zu betrachten ist." But this, as he has 

 probably since observed, is wholly a mistake ; indeed it would 

 be more correct to say that, in the sub-group of the Pintail 

 Snipes, the number of lateral tail feathers was totally valueless 

 as a specific characteristic. 



Not only does the number vary in sthenura as above, but in 

 solitaria again it varies from 16 to 24, and the number of 

 stiff laterals from 4 to 8 on each side. Nay, in sthenura it is 

 extremely common to get a greater number of these peculiar 

 feathers on one side than the other, 6 on one side, 7 on the 

 other, and so on, and that too in fresh birds, with absolutely 

 uninjured tails. Indeed it is by no means rare to get sthenura 

 with none of these stiff lateral feathers. They appear in fact 

 to be excessively variable in number, very easily shed, and 

 about the last portions of the bird's plumage on which to base 

 specific distinctions. 



But to return. If heterocerca is not sthenura, what I would 

 ask is heteroeaca ? This latter is said to be extremely like 

 heterocerca, but to be " somewhat larger in all its dimensions," 

 yet it has a wing of only 14 etm = 5*54 inches English ! Why 



