478 



SCOLOPAX. 



Synonymy. 



Telmatias stenoptera, Kuhl,fide Boie, Ms, 1826, p. 979. 



Scolopax steuura\ Kuhl,fide Bonap. Ann. Stor. Nat. Bologna, iv. fasc. xiv. p. 335 (1830). 



Scolopax horsfieldii, Gray, Zool. Miscell. 1831, p. 2. 



Gallinago heterura, Hodgson, Proc. Zool. Sue. 1836, p. 8. 



Gallinago biclavus, Hodgson, Journ. As. Sac. Beng. vi. p. 491 (1837). 



Scolopax heterura {Hodgson), Eijton, Proc. Zool Soc. 1839, p. 107. 



Gallinago horsfieldii {Gray), Gray, Cat. Mamm. S$c. Brit. Mus. iii. p. 110 (1844). 



Gallinago stenura {Kuhl), Gray, Genera of Birds, iii. p. 583 (1846). 



Scolopax pectinicauda. Peak, U. S. Expl. Exp. 1838-42, viii. p. 227 (1848). 



Spilura horsfieldi {Gray), Bonap. Cumpt. Rend, xliii. p. 579 (1856). 



Literature. Plates. — Radde, Eels, im Sud. v. Ost-Sibir. ii. pi. xiii.; Hiime & Marshall, Game Birds 



India &c. iii. p. 339. 

 Habits. — Hume & Marshall, Game Birds of India, Burma, and Ceylon, iii. p. 339. 

 Eggs. — Unknown. 



Specific 

 characters. 



Geographi- 

 cal distribu- 

 tion. 



The Pintail Snipe may always be recognized by its tail. The first or outer feather 

 on each side is only -05 inch across; each succeeding feather increases in width, but so 

 slightly that the eighth is only '1 inch across, the ninth is "25 inch across, leaving eight 

 still broader central feathers, making 26 in all. It frequently happens, however, that 

 some of the pin-feathers are missing. 



Of the three East-Siberian allies of the Common Snipe the Pintail Snipe is the 

 smallest (wing 4'9 to 5 '3 inch), with the greatest number of tail-feathers (26), and 

 with the outer half-dozen or so on each side the most attenuated (under '1 inch in width). 

 It breeds as far north as the Arctic Circle, from the valley of the Yenesay to the Pacific. 

 It is doubtful if it breeds as far south as the valley of the Amoor ; but it winters in India, 

 Ceylon, the Nicobars, the Andamans, the Burma Peninsula, China, and the islands of the 

 Malay Archipelago. 



Notwithstanding the extraordinary structural difference between the tail of the Pintail 

 Snipe and that of the North-American form of the Common Snipe {8. gallinago wilsoni), 

 these two species scarcely differ in any respect in colour or pattern of colour, though the 

 latter is very comphcated. The resemblance between them is so close, that it is doubtful 

 whether it would be possible to distinguish one from the other if the tail of each were 

 removed. Hume states that melanoid varieties of the Pintail Snipe also occur, which must 

 resemble very closely the melanoid variety of the common species known as Sabine's Snipe. 

 There can scarcely be any doubt that in this genus the pattern of the colour is a much 

 more important character, dating much further back in its origin than the structure of the 

 wings or tail. 



' Hume calls this species ,S'. sihenura, on the ground that it was so named by Bonaparte. This is a 

 mistake ; the introduction of the h appears to be a misprint, which first occurs in a translation (Isis, 1833, 

 p. 1077). 



