125 
Mr. H. Seebohm on the Genus Scolopax. 
Common Snipe are obviously nearer related to each other 
than either of them are to the Imperial Snipe of Colombia. 
All generic distinctions must be genetic distinctions, other¬ 
wise they are of no value. The theory that structural cha¬ 
racters only are of generic value, is either based upon the 
presumption that they date further back than characters 
founded upon difference in colour and pattern of colour, or 
it is an antiquated, unscientific, and absurd hypothesis. 
The Snipes and their nearest allies furnish some remark¬ 
able instances in which it is impossible to believe that differ¬ 
ences of structure date as far back as differences of colour. 
The Painted Snipes (Rhynchcea) * of South Africa, India, 
China, and Australia are precisely alike in colour. It is not 
known that the males from any of these localities can be 
distinguished from each other in any way. Gould's suppo¬ 
sition that the Painted Snipe from Australia has a shorter 
foot than the others appears to be unfounded, now that a 
large series of each have been examined. Nevertheless there 
seems to be unimpeachable evidence that the females of the 
Australian birds differ from those of Africa, India, and China 
in having the trachea elongated and convoluted in a remark¬ 
able manner, somewhat similar to that to be found in certain 
Cranes, Swans, and Geese. These birds may or may not be 
regarded as generically distinct from their respective allies; 
but be that as it may, no one can imagine that the common 
ancestors of the African and Australian Painted Snipes differed 
in colour from their two groups of descendants, and that 
consequently the two latter have independently developed a 
perfectly similar series of colours complicated in character, 
and differing to an unusual degree with age and sex. During 
the period which must have elapsed before the convolutions 
of the trachea could either have been lost in the African 
birds, produced in the Australian birds, or modified by each 
of them in opposite directions from an intermediate ancestral 
* The position which Sundevall has assigned to this genus—between 
Ibidorhyncha (which is a slightly modified Oystercatcher) and Numenius — 
is one of many similar cases which amply justify Professor Newton’s 
unfavourable criticism of that over-estimated systematist. 
