RED-BREASTED SNIPE. 4A7 
greater part of his Tringce, many of which took rank unper- 
ceived in both genera. Cuvier rectified this course, thus 
forming a vast genus Scolopax, more extensive than our whole 
family of Scolopacide. His subgenus Scolopax corresponds, 
however, exactly to my genus of that name, which I subdivide 
into three natural subgenera, Rusticola, Scolopax, and Mac- 
roramphus, which is the present bird.  Illiger first reduced 
the genus Scolopax within proper limits, but including, it 
is true, Rhynchwa, since established by Cuvier as a genus. 
Modern ornithologists in general agree with us, except that 
some, as Vieillot and Savi, consider Lusticola a true genus, 
leaving the name of Scolopax to the rest. Macroramphus 
and Scolopax are, in fact, more closely related than is Rusti- 
cola to any of them. 
All the species of our genus Scolopax are very similar as to 
the bill, which in all is long, slender, straight, compressed, 
especially at base, where it is elevated, soft and flexible its 
whole length, with the point depressed, dilated, tumid, and 
obtuse: owing to the desiccation of the delicate nervous 
apparatus of this part, it becomes wrinkled after death, 
exhibiting at the point a dorsal groove and numerous inden- 
‘tations. Both manibles are furrowed to the middle on each 
side ; the upper, serrated inside along the palate with spine- 
like processes pointing backwards, is terminated by an internal 
knob; the lower being shorter, channelled, and somewhat 
truncated: the nostrils are in the furrows, basal, marginal, 
linear, and pervious, but half closed by a membrane. The 
tongue is moderate, filiform, and acute. The head is in all 
large, compressed, and angular, low forward and high behind: 
the eyes are very large, placed high and far back, but perhaps 
less so in the bird which is more immediately the subject of 
our remarks: the neck is of moderate length, and stout ; the 
body compressed and very fleshy. 
But if they have all these traits in common, the feet, tail, 
and wings present material differences. ‘The feet are in all, 
it is true, moderately long, slender, and four-toed, there being 
