THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
observed. If series of juveniles were available as well as spirit specimens, 
much could be done : but lacking these, the featmes gained from an 
examination of skins can be fairly utiHsed. The peculiar degeneration of 
the tail is the one puzzling character which requires careful consideration 
as to its systematic value, and it is quite probable that the species which 
show peculiar tails have also internal characters worthy of note, as has 
been proved in the case of S. gallinula Linne. To deal with the Woodcock- 
like birds first : I have given generally the characters of Scolopax rusiicola 
Linne, the type of Scolopax Linne. The species S. minor Gmelin, which 
Sharpe admitted as generically distinct under Gray’s name of Philohela, needs 
little consideration. The biU and legs are typically “ rusfcicohne,” a name 
here proposed to cover the characters exemplified b}^ S. rusticola, and used 
as “ scolopacine ” has been so commonly utihsed in a different sense. The 
body and general aspect is typically rusticoline, and the species is generically 
separable at sight by its peculiar attenuated first two primaries : the small 
size and Woodcock-coloration are quite distinctive. The species S. rochusseni 
Schlegel, for which Salvadori provided Neoscolopax — ^which genus Sharpe 
accepted — ^is typically rusticoline, save that the tibia is unfeathered for a 
short space ; its coloration is remarkable. 
The species 8 . saturata Hodgson — with which S. rosenhergi Schlegel, 
quite wrongly, has been synonymised — ^is quite as distinctive as regards color- 
ation, and though the structural characters are typically rusticohne, the 
proportions differ : thus while the biU is shghtly longer, though of the 
same depth, the wing is considerably shorter, and the metatarsus is of 
the same length. Again, while the wing of S. rusticola is more than 
twice the length of the culmen, it is much less than twice the length 
of the culmen in S. saturata ; and further, while the wing is more 
than four times the length of the metatarsus in the former, it is less 
in the latter. To fix these differences, which coincide with a change in 
coloration, I propose the new genus-name PARASCOLOPAX, with S. saturata 
Hodgson as type. 
As before noted, the South American “ Snipes ” classed by Gray {Handl. 
Gen. Spec. Birds, pt. m., 1871, p. 54) under Xylocota, are essentially 
rusticoline and not “ gaUinagine,” a name here proposed to indicate the 
structural characters exemplified in Scolopax gallinago linne. 
These birds however show structural differences from each other and 
in one case, a distinct and extraordinary style of coloration. The 
coloration of the whole recalls that of a gaUinagine bird rather than 
a rusticohne species, and it would seem to be this character alone which 
has continually caused their reference to the former. This peculiarity also 
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