THE WOODCOCK. 323 
the basal half of the feather. Our museum does not contain a 
single Indian-killed specimen with the whole of the outer web of 
the first quill entirely plain. 
In the Woodcock the tail, which is well rounded, consists of 
only twelve rather soft feathers. 
In the Dun, I shot one abnormal bird, which had the entire 
ground colour creamy yellow, and the markings a sort of sepia 
-grey ; white, yellow, and cven blackish varieties have been 
noticed in Europe. 
BESIDES THE present species only two other Woodcocks ap- 
pear to be known. One, the smaller, proportionally longer billed 
and plainer plumaged, S. saturata from Java, and the other 
(separated by many writers under the generic name Philohela 
On account of its narrow scythe-shaped, three first primaries,) 
S. minor, of the Eastern United States, (extending as far west 
as Kansas and Nebraska,) and adjoining portions of Canada 
and Nova-Scotia. 
