135 
Mr. H. Seebohm on the Genus Scolopax. 
in 1863. It is difficult to say why Latham’s Snipe did not 
stop in Australia and breed there; but there must be some¬ 
thing either in the climate or food of that continent which 
does not suit the true Snipes during the breeding-season, as 
none of them are known to breed in Australia. Be that as 
it may, one party of emigrants seem to have flown almost due 
west to find a suitable home in Madagascar, whilst another 
must have flown almost due east to secure excellent quarters 
in Colombia. The birds which founded these two colonies, 
having discovered situations suitable for both summer and 
winter residence, probably neither changed their habits nor 
their structure. Their descendants are probably almost 
identical in form and colour with the common ancestors of 
the three forms when they w T ere residents in Japan, and that 
is probably the explanation of their remarkable similarity at 
the present day. They have never passed through the ordeal 
of annual migration or been subjected to the sifting process 
involved in the non-survival of the least fit to endure the 
perils of such journeys. The alternative hypothesis that the 
Japan bird has retained its characters, and that the Mada¬ 
gascan and Colombian species have changed, is open to the 
objection that it seems impossible that two colonies so re¬ 
motely situated could have independently varied in the same 
direction to a similar extent. 
There is one very remarkable fact connected with this 
group of Snipes, and that is that the number of tail-feathers 
(which is very variable in this genus) appears to vary in 
distinct connection with geographical distribution, as if it 
were a climatic rather than a genetic variation. The Snipes 
inhabiting Europe and Africa have only fourteen tail-feathers 
(S. gallinago , 8. cequatorialis , and S. macrodactyla); those 
inhabiting North and South America have sixteen tail-feathers 
(S. wilsoni, S. paraguayce, 8. brasiliensis, S. magellanica , 
S. andina , and S. nobilis), whilst the one inhabiting Asia (S. 
australis) has eighteen tail-feathers. The range of S. gallinago 
also extends to Asia, where it is said frequently to increase 
the number of its tail-feathers to sixteen. Of the other 
species of Snipe inhabiting East Siberia, two have twenty tail- 
