124 Mr. H. Seebohm on the Genus Scolopax. 
Snipe. This character confirms the five species mentioned 
in the last paragraph as the only true Woodcocks. 
5th. The primaries of the Snipe are uniform in colour, 
whilst those of the Woodcock are barred. This character 
excludes three out of the five Woodcocks, but admits two 
other species, neither of which possesses any of the four 
previous characters, so that it may be dismissed, 
6th. The eggs of the three species of European Snipes, 
and those of several species of African and American Snipes, 
closely resemble each other, and differ widely from those of 
the European and American species of Woodcocks. The eggs 
of several species of both groups are unknown, but the eggs 
of one at least of the two Snipes which the fifth character 
would determine to be Woodcocks exactly resemble, exchpt 
in size, the eggs of the latter group. 
Other minor points might be mentioned, but enough has 
been pointed out to show that Nature has drawn many lines 
between the Snipes and the Woodcocks, but unfortunately she 
has not drawn them in the same place. Two conclusions 
may be arrived at from the foregoing facts. One of these is 
that the characters of the Woodcocks and the Snipes are so 
closely interlaced that no ornithologist attempting classifica¬ 
tion on scientific principles would be likely to advise the sub¬ 
division of such a natural group as the genus Scolopax. The 
other conclusion requires consideration at greater length. 
Some ornithologists not only separate the Woodcocks 
generically from the Snipes, but further subdivide each of 
these groups. These writers have adopted a theory that 
what they call structural characters are of generic value, 
whilst they regard differences of colour as only of specific 
value. In accordance with this notion, they have placed 
the American Woodcock and the Jack Snipe in distinct 
genera, because in the former some of the primaries are 
remarkably attenuated, and in the latter the bill and the 
sternum are slightly exceptional, regardless of the facts that 
the American Woodcock is apparently more nearly related 
to the European Woodcock than either of them are to the 
Moluccan Woodcock, and that the Jack Snipe and the 
