THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
in their classification, but one which varies so much in degree that I have 
not been able to avail myself of it. The markings of black on the head and 
neck of the Woodcocks seem to afford a character of generic importance to 
separate them from the Snipes, and thus I consider Neoscolopax of Salvadori 
a recognisable genus of Mountain Woodcocks.” 
He then admitted as genera Lnnnocryptes for gallinula Linne, Scolopax 
for rusticola Linne and satumta Hodgson, Philohela for minor Gmelin, and 
Neoscolopax for rochusseni Schlegel. All the remainder he lumped under the 
generic name Gallinago. 
The most casual examination shows this to be a retrograde step, in view 
of the separation by Seebohm of the species into groups. 
It is rather strange that Sharpe, who had commonly used the nature 
of the metatarsal covering for subdivision in this Order, did not take into 
consideration this feature in the present instance. It seems to afford a basis 
for the separation of the species into Woodcock-like birds and Snipe-hke 
birds, and moreover these Woodcock-hke birds aU fall into Seebohm’s 
group of Woodcocks and semi-Woodcocks, which in addition only includes 
two species which have the legs and feet of the Snipe-hke birds combined with 
the bill of the Woodcock-hke birds. 
The results of my investigation seem worthy of record, especiahy in view 
of recent systematic work. 
The first consideration was the cohation of the generic names proposed 
in the group, and here at once the synonymy given in the British Museum 
Catalogue was found very much at fault. 
Scolopax was introduced by Linne {Syst. Nat., 10th ed., p. 145, 1758) 
for a varied assemblage of Wading birds, and VieiUot, in 1816, introduced 
Rusticola for Linne’s S. rusticola. Some months afterwards Koch introduced 
Gallinago for the Snipes proper, and only the apphcation of the principle of 
Linnean tautonymy avoids an unpleasant complication. By means of that 
principle the type of Scolopax is fixed as S. rusticola, and Gallinago is left as 
the first available name for the Snipe-hke birds. 
The first name to be investigated is Telmatias Boie, 1826. In the 
Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum this generic name is given in 
the synonymy of Gallinago but the type is cited as stenura. Boie introduced 
the generic name thus [Isis 1826, p. 979) : — 
“ Telmatias : stenoptera Kuhl : gallinago Lin. u.v.a.” 
It would thus appear to have been intended to cover ah Snipes, but we 
have to treat the name on the written word and we thus get Telmatias 
Boie — type (by monotypy) gallinago Linn. — for stenoptera Kuhl is an 
284 
