66 Zoology of Colorado 



distinct genus, Limnogeranus. The Rallidae include the Rails 

 and Coots, with six genera in Colorado. The Virginia (Rallus 

 cirginianus) is easily known from the Carolina Rail or Sora (Por- 

 zarxa Carolina) by the very much larger bill; the latter has a short 

 and compressed bill, and in the adult the face is black. Both are 

 regular summer residents in Colorado. The Coot (Fulica ameri- 

 carta) is a very dark bird with white or whitish bill, and the toes 

 with scalloped lobes. It is common during the summer. The 

 remaining Rallidae, Creciscus jamaicensis, Gallinula chloropus 

 cachinnans, and Ionornis martinicus, are only excessively rare 

 casual visitors. The last was once taken at Florence (Condor, 

 vol. 14, p. 151).* 



LIMICOLAE 



"Wing never over 15 inches; hind toe when present short and 

 elevated" (Sclater). Sclater treats this group as an order; Knowl- 

 ton and others make it a suborder of the heterogeneous Chara- 

 driiformes, which also includes the gulls and pigeons.** The 

 Limicolae are characteristically long-legged birds, often found by 

 the sea or in marshes. They include the snipes, woodcocks, 

 sandpipers and plovers. Our very numerous species are referred 

 to the families Phalaropodidae (phalaropes, with expanded toes), 

 Recurvirostridae (avocets and stilts), Scolopacidae (snipes, wood- 

 cocks and sandpipers), Charadriidae (plovers) and Arenariidae 

 (Ruddy Turnstone, which is a rare straggler). Our two species 

 of phalaropes occur as migrants; the Northern Phalarope (Lobipes 

 lobatus) has the toes with scalloped margins, approaching the con- 

 dition of the coot. In Wilson's Phalarope (Steganopus tricolor) 

 this is not the case. The Avocet (Recurvirostra americana) is 

 readily known by the long upturned bill, though this is not so 

 evident in the young. It is locally abundant in Colorado. Much 

 less frequent is the Black-necked Stilt (Himantopus mcxicanus), 

 with extremely long pinkish legs, body greenish-black above and 

 white beneath, bill long and straight. The Scolopacidae are a 



*See also W. W. Cooke, Distribution and Migration of North America Rails and their 

 Allies. U. S. Dept. Agriculture Bull., 128. 



**ln my Zoology (1920), I followed Knowlton's arrangement of Orders, which is based on 

 the researches of many authors, and has the advantage of reducing the number of major groups. 

 But here I follow Sclater, who treats several of the Orders in a more restricted sense, a pro- 

 ceeding which gives us more coherent and apparently natural subdivisions. There is no 

 essential difference of opinion as to the facts, but only as to the manner of representing them. 



