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180 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



19. Heteractitis brevipes (Vieillot). 



Totanus brevipes Vieillot, Nov. diet. hist, nat., 1816, 6, p. 410. (Timor). 



One male was taken at Uala in the Middle Carolines, 16 February, 

 1900. Mathews (Birds of Australia, 1913, 3, pt. 3, p. 209) considers 

 Heteractitis brevipes a form of H. incanus, but the differences character- 

 izing it seem so constant as to establish it as a full species. Examina- 

 tion of a considerable series of tattlers in the U. S. N. M. collection 

 reveals no intergradation and all specimens examined could be deter- 

 mined as either H. incanus or H. brevipes at a glance. The differences 

 between the two have been well set forth by Dr. Stejneger (Bull. 29 

 U. S. N. M., 1885, p. 132). 



20. Limosa lapponica baueri (Naumann). 



Limosa baueri Naumann, Vogel Deutschl., 1836, 8, p. 429. (Australia). 



A female collected on Funafuti 24 December, 1899, constitutes, 

 apparently, the first record of the bird in the Ellice Islands. Mathews 

 (Birds of Australia, 1913, 3, pt. 2, p. 191) has divided the genus Limosa, 

 as at present recognized, into two groups, proposing the name Vetola 

 for Limosa lapponica, a genus which, if recognized, must also include 

 Limosa hacmastica and L. fedoa. He restricts Limosa to the single 

 species Limosa limosa. and in his diagnosis gives the following as dis- 

 tinguishing Vetola from it: "the bill is proportionately shorter and 

 more slender and distinctly more upturned; the groove on the upper 

 mandible becomes obsolete at about three-quarters the length of the 

 culmen owing to the strong vertical compression of the upper mandible, 

 the groove on the lower mandible persists however as in Limosa. The 

 legs are short, the exposed tibia being less than the length of the middle 

 toe, the metatarsus is less than twice the middle toe and also less than 

 one-third the length of the wing, the scutellation of the front of the 

 metatarsus becomes irregular and broken up into hexagonal scales 

 towards the tibio-tarsal joint, whereas in Limosa the scutellation is 

 quite regular. The middle claw is normal, untoothed and short, 

 being one-fourth, or less, the length of the middle toe." 



Examination of a series of specimens of the four species of godwits 

 included under the genus Limosa {sensu latu) fails to substantiate the 



