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compared it with a series of eight skins of Gallinago aucklandica in the British Museum, brought 

 from the Auckland Islands by the Antarctic expedition, and with another from the same loca- 

 lity in the possession of Mr. Gould, I have come to the conclusion that, notwithstanding the great 

 difference in the length of the bill, they are referable to one and the same species — or, at any 

 rate, that till further specimens have been obtained it would be unwise to separate them. 



In his description of Gallinago aiicMandica, Mr. Gray gives the following measurements : — 

 " Length 9 inches, wing A\, bill 2 inches and 4 lines." In the type of my G. pusilla, the dimen- 

 sions are appeciably smaller in every way ; and in the specimen which I brought to England for 

 comparison, they are as follows : — Length 8 inches ; wing, from flexure, 4 ; bill, along the ridge, 

 1"7. Mr. Gould's specimen has the same length of wing ; but the bill measures 2-45 inches. Of 

 the eight examples in the British Museum, one corresponds very nearly with the last mentioned, 

 in four of them the bill measures 2*25, in two others it barely exceeds 2 inches, and in the 

 remaining one it is only 1*8 inch ; while in none of them does the wing vary, in any material 

 degree, from the standard length of 4 inches. The slight individual differences of plumage are 

 only of the kind we are accustomed to look for in members of this group. 



2d 



