3730 Birds. 



this rule becomes a point of considerable importance, though alone 

 perhaps hardly sufficient to justify a specific separation. In this part 

 of Oxfordshire, snipes are usually very plentiful ; during the last few 

 seasons many hundreds have passed through my own hands, or those 

 of my brothers : and it has almost invariably been our custom, since 

 we first heard of the occurrence of S. Brehmi, to count the feathers in 

 the tail of each fresh victim ; but of the numbers thus counted, not 

 one, save the subject of the present notice, has presented any varia- 

 tion from the typical number (14). Occasionally indeed a feather or 

 two may have been missing, but the reason for this has always been 

 apparent, sometimes from natural causes, at other times from the ef- 

 fect of the shot ; in all cases quite sufficient proof remained that four- 

 teen would have been the legitimate complement of each tail. 



It is hardly necessary to observe, that the feathers on one side of 

 the tail correspond in shape and colour with those on the other side ; 

 thus in a tail composed of fourteen feathers, we find seven pair, each 

 pair being precisely similar in themselves ; the outermost feathers on 

 each side forming the last pair, and the two middle feathers the first 

 of the series. By this rule, when a tail has been examined presenting 

 an abnormal number of feathers, the absence of one or more has been 

 readily accounted for, even where no vestige of the plume itself re- 

 mained. If then the tail-feathers of the snipe are variable in number, 

 it appears singular that no such variation should have occurred to 

 ourselves in the course of so long an investigation ; if, on the other 

 hand, the number of the tail-feathers be a permanent character of the 

 common snipe, then surely a difference in this particular becomes im- 

 portant in distinguishing an allied species, especially if accompanied 

 by other dissimilarities. In the specimen before us several other dif- 

 ferences do present themselves, which it will be well to examine in 

 detail. 



Though different individuals of the common snipe vary much in the 

 markings of the back and back of the head, yet in the plumage of 

 all the lower parts of the body they constantly resemble each other. 

 From the base of the lower mandible, for the space of about half an inch, 

 the feathers are of a plain buff colour, from thence to the commence- 

 ment of the breast-bone they are mottled with various shades of brown, 

 near the latter point these markings terminate, the whole of the re- 

 maining plumage being of a pure white, with the exception of the 

 long feathers supporting the wings when folded, which last are more 

 or less transversely barred with black. Here the difference between 

 this bird and its congeners would strike the most casual observer. 



