XIII, D. 1 McGregor: Philippine Birds, II 7 



This genus is somewhat anomalous in characters. The 

 structure of the bill is exactly as in Gallinago, but the length of 

 the bill is as great as in Philohela minor. The other characters 

 are those of a large, semipalmated sandpiper. Attempts to ex- 

 press these facts have resulted in Macrorhamphus being placed 

 in different positions by different authors. Sharpe and other 

 English writers place Macror^hamphus after Limosa in the Tota- 

 ninae and let Gallinago, etc., end the list of the Scolopacinae. 

 The American Ornithologists' Union ^ list begins the Scolopa- 

 cidffi with Scolopax, Philohela, Gallinago, and Macrorhamphus; 

 places Limosa after Calidris; and recognizes no subfamilies in 

 the family of snipes, sandpipers, etc. Ridgway - recognizes 

 three subfamilies in this group: Scolopacinse, the snipes; Trin- 

 ginse, the sandpipers, with Macrorhamphus near the end next to 

 Limosa; and Numeninse, the curlews. 



The American species of Macrorhamphus are called dowit- 

 chers. Ridgway includes a diagnosis of the Oriental species 

 of Macrorhamphus and uses as an English name semipalmated 

 snipe. If there is no objection to "dowitcher" as a name, I 

 suggest "Oriental dowitcher" for Macrorhamphus semipalmatus 

 as being more appropriate than Ridgway's name, semipahnated 

 snipe. 



Of the name dowitcher Webster's Dictionary says : 



Of Amer. Ind. origin ; cf . Mohawk and Cajruga ta-wis, Onondaga, ta-wish, 

 the name for the snipe. 



The Standard Dictionary and the Century Dictionary give a 

 very different derivation of the name. The latter says that 

 dowitcher is a corruption of deutscher, a German, and is — 



a popular and now a book name of this species [Macrorhamphus griseiis'}, 

 which was formerly locally (Long Island and vicinity) called German 

 or Dutch snipe, to distinguish it from the so-called English snipe, Gallinago 

 wilsoni. 



Trumbull ^ says of the same species : 



These names Dowitch and Dowitcher meant originally that this was the 

 Dutch or German, Snipe (Duitch, Deutscher) , and were probably employed 

 to distinguish No. 45 [M. grisev^} particularly from the "English" snipe, 

 No. 44. 



^ Check-list of North American Birds, 3d ed. revised. New York (1910), 

 109-125. 



^ Ridg-way, R., A Manual of North American Birds. J. B. Lippincott 

 Company, Philadelphia (1887), 147-149. 



^ Trumbull, Gurdon, Names and Portraits of Birds. Harper and 

 Brothers, New York (1888), 160-162. 



