1837.] New species of Scolopacida, Indian Snipes. 489 



Dr. S. has, at great trouble and expense, conveyed across country 

 from the Nerbudda to the Ganges for us. In the sketch of localities 

 joined to his note, it becomes evident that the whole alluvium 

 contains fossil remains ;, and we may confidently leave its exploration 

 to the Doctor and his coadjutor Major Ouseley. We might expatiate 

 upon the gold medals awarded by the London Geological Society to 

 Messrs. Cautley and Falconer* as a stimulus to our discoverers, but 

 although it must be an encouragement to all to find their labors thus 

 appreciated at home, we should blush to put such rewards in the scale 

 against, or with, the disinterested love of science which has done so 

 much alone. We would suggest to Dr.S. not to confine himself to gigan- 

 tic specimens, but particularly to select from the mass of fragments, 

 teeth of all sorts : hitherto we have only had the horse, the elephant, 

 and the buffalo from Jabulpur, but doubtless there are as many other 

 animals associated with these as at Perim and elsewhere. We have 

 not time at present to lithograph the buffalo (an incontestable one it is) 

 but we reserve it with the less regret because we are expecting a 

 similar specimen from Mr. Dawe, — when all the heads can be arranged 

 together for comparison. — Ed. 



VI. — New species of Scolopacidee, Indian Snipes. 

 By B. H. Hodgson, Esq. 

 In No. 32 of the Gleanings in Science, (the precursor of your Jour- 

 nal) for August, 1831, I gave a full and careful account of the 

 Woodcock and of the several Snipes of Nepal. But as no technical 

 names and characters were then affixed to these birdsf, I may as well 

 attempt to supply the deficiency for the benefit of local inquirers, 

 who, I suspect, are hardly sufficiently alive to that legerdemain 

 of the closet-naturalist, whereby they are cheated of the whole 

 merit of their labours by him who does no more than annex a few 

 words of doggrel Latin to the numerous facts painfully elaborated by 

 costly and continuous attention. How long assiduous local research 

 is to be deliberately deprived of those aids of library and museum 

 which it ought to be the chief duty of learned Societies at home to 

 furnish, I know not. But the candid will, in the meanwhile, make all 



* We hope these medals will not be so tardy of arrival as those voted to 

 Captains Burnes and Conolly by the Paris Geographical Society which have 

 not yet made their appearance. — Ed. 



t Those to whom it went, best know what is become of the paper I seot 

 home, with these names and characters affixed. 



