Svirvzr. § GRALLATORES. SCOLOPAX. 119 
Medway, near Rochester, in October 1824, and is now pre- 
- seryed in the exéellent collection of Mr Dunwnine of Maid- 
stone. Since that time, no instance of the capture of this 
species has come to my knowledge, although I have used all 
diligence on the subject, not only in England and Scotland, 
but also in Ireland, where it. was first discovered, and where 
the nature of the soil, and the abundance of marshy tracts, 
are peculiarly favourable to birds of this:genus. The above 
indicates that, as a species, it is very sparingly distributed 
throughout the kingdom ; and, from the circumstance of no 
skin or specimen having been hitherto obtained from any 
other part of the globe, it would appear to be equally rare 
in such countries as have been examined with attention, as 
far as regards their ornithological productions. I do not, 
however, make these remarks, as questioning in any degree 
its claim to be considered a distinct species (of which I en- 
tertain no doubt, both from the accurate description of Mr 
Vicors, and from personal inspection of the original speci- 
mens), but merely as noticing its present apparent rarity. It 
is not at all: improbable, but that it may be discovered in 
abundance in''some hitherto unexamined part‘of the world, 
or where ornithology has been little attended to ; and I: need 
scarcely add, what is well known to most practical natural- 
ists, viz. that species, in every department of nature, are fre- 
quently very restricted and local in their distribution. 
In giving the distinctive characters of this species, I can- 
not do better than quote Mr Vicors’s own words :—* It is 
at once distinguished from every other European species of 
Scolopax, by the total absence of white from its plumage, or 
any of those lighter tints of ferruginous-yellow, which extends 
more or less in stripes along the head and back of ‘them all. 
In this respect it exhibits a strong resemblance to Scolopax 
saturata of Dr Horsrretp, from which, however, it suffi- 
ciently ‘differs in its general proportions; and I find no de- 
seriptionof any other extra-European species of true Scolo- 
pax which at all approaches it in this character of its plu- 
mage. In the number of its tail-feathers, again, which 
