RED-BREASTED SNIPE. AA 
and morasses ; but, unlike the snipes, they prefer the vicinity 
of the sea. They might indeed be called salt-water snipes, 
in contradistinction to the others, which are fresh-water 
snipes. Their flight is high, rapid, and irregular, having 
nothing of the heaviness of the woodcocks. 'The flesh of all 
these birds is exquisite food, and much sought after. 
The Rusticola of Vieillot, which we adopt as a subgenus 
for the woodcocks, is distinguished, even from most water 
birds, by the want of nudity of the tibia, which is completely 
covered with feathers, as in land birds. It contains but the 
two species alluded to, that are closely allied, though they 
have specific traits that might constitute genera in other cases. 
This shows the difficulty in our science of knowing where to 
seek for generic and specific traits in the different groups. 
The two species of woodcocks vary greatly in their respective 
habits, one being a summer, the other a winter visitant in 
temperate climates, and one of course retiring south, the other 
northward from them. Some authors prefer for this group 
the name of Scolopax, because it is to its type that the Greeks 
gave this name. 
Our subgenus Scolopax, of which we have published a 
monograph in our observations on the second edition of 
Cuvier’s ‘Animal Kingdom,” is composed of nine or ten species, 
all of which, with their characteristic details, will be carefully 
figured in our inedited work “ Lithographic Monography of 
Obscure Genera of Aquatic Birds.” In these the tail-feathers 
furnish the specific characters. The number, shape, and 
disposition of these afford a sure clue, asin Nuwmenius it is 
the rump, under wing-coverts, and long axillary feathers 
which are our best guide to a knowledge of the species. 
Without this clue they cannot well be distinguished, and 
those who undertake to make phrases with this object in a 
group to which they have not the clue, will only make 
pedantic nonsense, as is done every day. This very natural 
group is called Telmatias by Boie, and Gallinago by the 
English. 
VOL, III. 2F 
