446 RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 
Scolopax noveboracensis, which appertained originally to the 
summer dress alone. That given to the winter dress is now, 
however, with more propriety adopted by all modern ornitho- 
logists. As some birds of the old continent are known occa- 
sionally to stray to the American shores,* so this common 
American bird visits accidentally the north of Europe, and 
especially its islands, There are several instances of its 
having been killed in the British Isles, where more than one 
English specimen is preserved, small parties even of these 
birds having been seen there at different periods and in their 
different dresses. But these instances are by no means so 
frequent as reported in authors, the Limosa rufa and Tringa 
islandica having been mistaken for it. A specimen in ambi- 
guous plumage, straying into Sweden from the marshes of 
Lapland (where they may be more common), afforded Nilsson 
the opportunity of contributing his part to the confusion ; but 
as he gave a figure, besides describing the bird with his char- 
acteristic accuracy, it was at once detected. Since T’emminck, 
it is only wilful obstinacy or gross ignorance that can persist 
in regarding as species the different states of a bird so well 
marked in its natural genus as to deserve a subgenus for itself, 
and still more on account of its habits than its conformation 
(notwithstanding ’emminck’'s statements to the contrary), as 
will be evident from the following generalities on the genus 
Scolopax. 
This genus, as instituted by Linné, and adopted by authors 
from Latham to Wilson, was, like Z’ringa, a great receptacle, 
though with the advantage of not containing a single species 
that is not still admitted as of at least the same family. 
But however extensive it may have been, had Linné been con- 
sistent in arranging under it all the species that possessed the 
character he assigned to it, he ought to have added to it the 
* The Tringa pugnax of Europe, we are informed by Mr Cooper, who 
has compared the specimen with one of the species from Austria in 
analogous plumage, has been shot on Long Island, in the State of New 
York. 
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