CHAPTER XXX. 



Genus SCOLOPAX. 



Charadriid« digitis omnibus ad basin liberis : rostro longissimo (quam tarsus duplo longiore). Diagnosis 



of genus. 



The Snipes are very easily and very distinctly characterized from their allies. Most of the 

 Charadriidse are partially web-footed ; they have a distinct web at the base of the toes, 

 sometimes much more developed between the outer and middle toe : but the Snipes, some 

 of the Sandpipers, and the Turnstones are exceptions to this rule ; they have no rudimentary 

 web between any of the toes, which are all cleft to the base. Again, most of the 

 Charadriidse have comparatively long legs and short bills; the Snipes, on the contrary, 

 have short legs and long bills. The only birds in this family, except the Snipes, in which 

 the bill is as long as, or longer than, twice the length of the tarsus are the females of one or 

 two species of Curlew, and one or two species of Sandpiper, none of which have all the 

 toes cleft to the base. The genus Scolopax may therefore be diagnosed as follows : — 



Charadriidse having the bill twice as long as the tarsus, and having all the toes cleft 

 to the base. 



The Snipes are the only birds in the family which combine both characters ; the 

 diagnosis is therefore perfect, including all the species which belong to the genus Scolopaoe, 

 and excluding every other bird. 



It is quite possible to construct other diagnoses of this genus which, if more com- 

 plicated, are nevertheless founded upon characters of equal importance ; but enough has 

 been said to show what a good genus Scolopax is. To split up such a sharply defined 

 well -characterized genus into four or five ill-defined badly-characterized genera is surely 

 both unnecessary and unwise. Like every other genus it may easily be divided into 

 subgeneric groups, because the gaps between the species are not of exactly the same width. 

 A coincidence so remarkable seldom or never occurs. 



Most ornithologists recognize the two groups of Snipe and Woodcock as generically 

 distinct, but they probably do so because they are unacquainted with the intermediate 



Generic 

 characters. 



Folly of 

 splitting the 

 genus. 



