THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SNIPE. 269 



number of the feathers of the tail, and in the more heavily 

 cross-barred plumage of the Asiatic bird. 



It is worth noting that the American Snipe ((?. delicata) is 

 also usually more heavily barred than our own bird, and in this 

 resembles the Asiatic form. Our own Snipe is found also in 

 Asia, living side by side with the Pintailed Snipe, and in India 

 Hume says that individuals with sixteen feathers are " common 

 enough," and states also that "melanoid" varieties of the Pin- 

 tailed Snipe occur. Presumably these belong to the variety so 

 well known in England as " Sabine's Snipe." I have only 

 examined the feathers, bill, and feet of the American form, and 

 know nothing of its main structure ; yet I do not hesitate to 

 say that its anatomy will be in every way that of the Common 

 Snipe. 



I cannot think I am straying away from observed facts if I 

 say that the above-mentioned forms of Snipe are nothing but 

 varieties of a single species. For all I can learn to the contrary 

 they differ only in the heaviness or otherwise of the transverse 

 markings on the plumage, and in the number and shape of the 

 feathers in the tail. Of course, I speak now from a biological 

 standpoint, and not according to the views of those ornitho- 

 logists who hold a difference in colour that is capable of being 

 easily made by the careful use of methylated spirit sufficient 

 grounds for forming a new " species." The characters adopted 

 as " specific " in birds would be rejected with the utmost scorn 

 by the botanist or the entomologist of to-day, and I am not sure 

 that this is not true also for some " varieties" or " subspecies" 

 that depend entirely upon faint differences in colour. 

 • At any rate — to resume this particular discussion of the 

 Snipes — we have first of all the Jack-Snipe, a remarkably stable 

 bird, with no geographical races anywhere in its range ; and, on 

 the other hand, the Common Snipe, one of the most variable 

 birds in the world, whether or not we include the so-called 

 species stenura and delicata. In Great Britain the Common 

 Snipe resembles the Jack-Snipe so closely that none except the 

 expert is able to distinguish between them, and many ornitholo- 

 gists refuse to believe that they do not belong to the same genus. 



Outwardly, so far as plumage is concerned, the two birds are 

 alike ; therefore, many students believe they are related. But 



