137 
Mr. H. Seebohm on the Genus Scolopax. 
allied to the Common Snipe, with which it agrees in having 
the outer web of the first primary white, and in having 
the axillaries varying in colour from unspotted white to white 
regularly and broadly banded with brown; in size, also, it 
scarcely differs, but it may always be distinguished by the 
whiteness of its under tail-coverts and outer tail-feathers, and 
by the narrowness of the outer tail-feather on each side, though 
the number of tail-feathers is the same (fourteen). The rela¬ 
tionship is close; but there cannot be much doubt that the 
Ethiopian Snipe is specifically distinct from its Palsearctic 
ally, though the winter range of the latter is said to join the 
breeding-grounds of the former in Abyssinia. It is worthy 
of note that the European Snipe is a migratory bird, and. has 
consequently more pointed wings than those of its Ethiopian 
ally, which is a resident. The Ethiopian Snipe inhabits the 
east of Africa from Abyssinia to the Cape, and is doubtfully 
recorded from Benguela and Senegambia on the west. 
21. ScOLOPAX FRENATA PARAGUAY,®. 
Closely related as are the Common and Ethiopian Snipes, 
the latter has a still closer relationship to the Chilian Snipe, 
which is apparently an intermediate form having some of 
the characters of each. The wings are more rounded than 
in the one and not so much so as in the other. The shape 
of the tail-feathers (the outer on each side attenuated) re¬ 
sembles that of the Ethiopian Snipe; but the colour of the 
under tail-coverts and outer tail-feathers is the same as in 
the Common Snipe. 
The only conclusion that appears probable seems to be 
that the ancestors of the three forms were once residents 
round the basin of the North Pole, and that they varied but 
little from the present East-African and west South-American 
species. After the Glacial epoch drove them south they 
became residents in two colonies, one in the eastern hemi¬ 
sphere and one in the western, in both of which they found 
in the south conditions of life so similar to their former 
existence that they have scarcely changed, though they have 
been so long isolated. Both in the Old and in the New 
ser. v.—VOL. IV. 
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