272 ORITHOLOGICAL NOTES. 



recorded in the " Zoologist " in tlie month of February last. Up 

 to a very recent period, the Sabines Snipe was recognised and 

 described in all our works on British Birds as specifically distinct 

 from the other snipes. One of its alleged principal distinguish- 

 ing characters, and the one most relied on, has been in the number 

 of its tail feathers being 12 instead of 14, the last being the 

 normal number of the tail feathers of the common snipe, and 16 

 that of the great and solitary snipe. Another character in this 

 bird quite at variance with the other snipes, is the entire absence 

 of the longitudinal dorsal lines which we always see in the 

 Grreat, Common, and Jack Snipes. In spite of these two strong 

 characters, there has been a very strong leaning of late on 

 the part of our scientific naturalists to regard this bird as a mere 

 melanite variety of the common snipe, and not a distinct species. 

 Mr. Gould is a convert to this oj)inion, for in his Birds of Mir ope 

 he gives a figure of the bird as a distinct species ; but in his last 

 work, the Birds of Great Britain, he has o:nitted to even figure 

 the bird, or to regard it as specifically distinct. Now, in support 

 of this newly adopted opinion as to its being only a variety and 

 not a distinct species, it is no less interesting than true, that the 

 two Cornish specimens, the one killed at Carnantou, and the other 

 near Penzance, each had 14 tail feathers, the normal number of 

 our common snipe's tail as before mentioned ; of this fact, I am 

 certain, as I counted them distinctly more than once. This fact^ 

 therefore, throws to the winds the 12 tail feather theory as the 

 great leading character to be depended on of its specific value, 

 and aids in a very substantial form the correctness of the modern 

 opinion against it. See articles in " Zoologist," p.p. 7882, 7938^ 

 New Series, 1422, 4801. I will here remark that the opinions 

 of Mr. Grould and other eminent naturalists had been, previous 

 to the establishment of the fallacy of the 12 tail feather theory, 

 strongly leaning to S. Sabini being only a variety and possessing 

 no claim to specific value ; and I need scarcely add that their 

 opinions must probably now be strengthened to a conviction of 

 the accuracy of their former conjectures, by the fact of the cor- 

 respondence of the number of the caudal feathers in the two 

 birds in more instances than one. As, however, I do not partici- 

 pate in a full conviction of the identity of the two birds, I will 

 proceed to offer my reasons for entertaining a doubt on the 

 subject. 



