ihat connect the Orders and Families of Birds. 49 1 



cepede, which in its more slender bill bears an affinity to Eu- 

 ^'yvyga-, from whence we commenced our inquiries into the 

 family. 



Proceeding in the same course of observation, we may trace 

 out the distinction between the family of ScolopacidcB and the 

 groups we have just quitted, in the weakness and elevation of the 

 hinder toe, and the slenderness and flexibility of the bill. The 

 latter character is more particularly conspicuous in the typical 

 species, which make use of the flexible bill in penetrating the 

 mud and soft spongy marshes whence they extract the worms, 

 insects, smaller mollusca, and animalcula, that chiefly constitute 

 their food. The family is united to the Ardeida by means of 

 Numenius, Briss., which approaches Ibis most closely in its bill. 

 By means also of the immediate connexion of Ibis with the ge- 

 nera Eurypyga and Aram us, the Scolopacidce preserve their afii- 

 nity to those groups, with which indeed their appearance has 

 generally associated them. This may be inferred from the ge- 

 neric or specific name originally conferred upon each of these 

 groups ; the former genus being formed of the Scolopax helias of 

 M. Pallas, or the Cain-ale Snipe of Dr. Latham's Synopsis ; and 

 the latter of the Ardea scolopacea of Linnaeus. We cannot have 

 a more accurate guide through the affinities of this extensive 

 family than M. Temminck, whose opportunities of observing the 

 habits and characters of the birds of the present order have been 

 so extensive, and whose ability and industry in improving these 

 opportunities have been so fully exerted, as to leave little room 

 for further observation on the subject, as far at least as regards 

 the European species. Following his views, with some slight 

 modification, we may remark, that from Numenius we pass on to 

 Totanus, Briss., the bill of which, comparatively robust at the 

 point, holds a middle situation between the strong bill of that 

 genus and the entirely flexible bill of Limosa, Briss. The genus 



VOL. XIV. 3 s Recur- 



