466 



SCOLOPAX. 



Geopraphi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



Local dis- 

 tribution. 



Differentia- 

 tion eom- 

 menoed 

 early. 



Origin of 

 Woodcocks. 



Semi-Wood- 

 cocks. 



Emigrations 

 of Wood- 

 cocks. 



The geographical distribution of the Snipes is remarkable. Few genera of birds so 

 nearly approach being absolutely cosmopolitan as the genus Scolopax. In the Arctic 

 Regions both of the Old and of the New World Snipes breed beyond the Arctic Circle, in 

 Norway, under the influence of the Gulf-stream, as far north as latitude 70°. No true 

 Snipe is known to breed in Australia (the eggs attributed to the Australian Snipe are 

 undoubtedly those of the Australian Painted Snipe) ; nor is any Snipe known to breed in 

 any of the Pacific islands, with the exception of Auckland Island and the Chatham Islands, 

 south of New Zealand. No true Snipe breeds in the Oriental Region, except at high 

 elevations in the Himalayas and other mountain-ranges; but after the breeding-season 

 both India, the Malay Peninsula, and Australia are visited by enormous numbers of 

 Snipe. Otherwise the Snipes are cosmopolitan, breeding in Europe, Asia, Africa, and 

 both North and South America. 



The Snipes are not shore-birds ; had they been, they would doubtless have had a 

 summer plumage different to that of winter. They live in forest-swamps and open marshes 

 where there is plenty of cover, and where they are as much concealed in winter as in 

 summer. Neither can they be called Arctic birds ; they range up to, but scarcely beyond, 

 the Arctic Circle, and breed in many subtropical countries. This partiality of the Snipes 

 for cover is probably an important factor in the history of the evolution of the genus 

 Scolopax. There can be little doubt that the ancestral species of the genus, wherever it 

 came from, gradually extended its range until it became circumpolar, but the distance 

 between Greenland and Scandinavia probably prevented any but shore-birds from having 

 the area of their distribution continuous in both directions. Hence we may assume that 

 as the Snipes are not shore-birds differentiation commenced at a very' early period with 

 them. The influence of the Gulf-stream and the mountainous character of Scandinavia 

 probably brought the forests down to the coast in Lapland, so that the Snipes of that 

 district became forest-birds and developed into Woodcocks ; whilst the Rocky Mountains 

 proved almost as favourable to forest-growth, but in the. absence of the warmth produced 

 by the Gulf-stream, the forests were separated by a tundra from the shore, where the Snipes 

 appear to have developed into Serai-Woodcocks, so that when the Post-Pliocene Glacial 

 Period drove them south, they were already partially differentiated into two species, one 

 frequenting the marshes, and the other the forests. 



During the Pliocene Age the Woodcocks appear to have gradually extended their 

 range eastwards throughout the forest-districts of the Palsearctic Region ; and during the 

 Post-Pliocene Glacial Epoch some of them (the ancestors of S. minor) appear to have 

 emigrated across the Atlantic by way of the Azores to the Eastern States, whilst others 

 found isolated homes in Java (the ancestors of 8. saturata) and in the Moluccas (those of 

 8. rochiissenl). 



The Semi-Woodcocks of the Rocky Mountains were driven south by the Post-Pliocene 

 Glacial Epoch, and appear to have become isolated and differentiated in the northern 



