27 G SCOLOPACIDyE. 



all (Jard., Macg.). This bird is not known out of the British 

 Islands, and there only as one of which a few individuals have 

 fallen beneath the guns of snipe- shooters. Of its breeding- 

 haunts, &c, we are wholly ignorant, so that the Sabine snipe is 

 one of the greatest puzzles in Ornithology. For some time 

 past I have not felt altogether satisfied respecting its distinctness 

 as a species from the common snipe (ScoL gallinago) on account 

 of the great similarity of the structural characters. A- specimen 

 kindly sent for my examination in March, 1849, from the museum 

 of Trinity College, Dublin, by Mr. E. Ball, presented the following 

 measurements, as compared with a common snipe : — 



Sabine snipe. Comm. snipe. 

 Inch. Line. Inch. Line. 

 ' Length total (of stuffed specimens, and hence uncertain) 10 8 11 3 



of bill above . . ...... 2 9 2 10| 



tarsus ....... 1 3i 14 



middle toe and nail ; .... 1 4 15 



wing from carpus 5 5 



First quill feather of the Sabine snipe the longest in the wing : as it also was in that 

 of two common snipes examined at the same time. 



The tail feathers of 8. Sabini are described to be twelve in 

 number, but this bird had thirteen, having, of course, lost one, 

 which would have made the number the same as in the S. galli- 

 nago. Mr. Davis, too, notices his bird as having thirteen tail 

 feathers. The two exterior toes of 8, Sabini are described to be 

 " united to the base for a short distance •" but they were not in 

 the least so in the specimen under consideration nor in that de- 

 scribed by Mr. Davis. The tarsi of S. Sabini are described to be 

 ^ of an inch shorter than those of 8. gallinago; but in the two 

 individuals of which dimensions are here given, they are only 

 nominally, or ~ shorter. Adult common snipes could doubtless be 

 found to vary ^ of an inch in the length of their tarsi. When it 

 is added that the tarsi are said to be stouter in S. Sabini than 

 in S. gallinago, the whole of the structural differences pointed 

 out in the original description of Mr. Vigors are included. 

 In fresh birds only (which I have not seen) could this well be 

 observed ; the dried one which I examined in reference to this 



