EULIGA. 167 



yellow, the tarsus somewhat shorter than the bill. Iris hazel. — 

 Female larger, with the zigzags on the tertiaries small, obscure 

 and confined to the tips ; with the white spot on the wing com- 

 mencing on the 2d primary, where, however, it is small and mot- 

 tled. Outer tail feather, and a great part of the 2d white, with dusky 

 bars. — Voting, white below, and without spots, the sides of the breast 

 ash-grey ; two first primaries often wholly dusky-olive ; top of the 

 head and neck plain olive-brown, without spots or with very faint 

 traces of them ; coverts of the wings and the long feathers of the 

 back all without bars, terminated with dark curved edgings, and 

 tipped with slender borders of pale rufous or greyish- white. Outer 

 tail feather in some white, in others with much olive, all barred 

 with blackish. 



Subgenus. — *EuLiGA.f 



Bill slightly curving from near the middle, depressed at the base, 

 about the length of the head. Legs and feet robust, the latter 

 warty beneath ; hind toe half the length of the inner one. Wings 

 shorter than the tail. 



This beautiful bird, for which this section is instituted, is in habit 

 and plumage more allied to the Curlews than the present genus. 

 The bill is thus faintly curved from below the point ; the feet are 

 equally robust. The bars on the inner parts of the wing and its 

 axillaries, as well as the longitudinal and arrow shaped spots of the 

 neck and breast ; and particularly the medial line on the top of the 

 head, are characteristic traits in the livery of several species of JVu- 

 menius. But the inner and middle toe are divided to the base, and 

 the bill is not longer than the head, as well as sharp at the extremity. 

 These birds rarely ever frequent the sea coast, residing chiefly in 

 meadows, and plains near the sea (in autumn.) subsisting almost 

 wholly on coleoptera, grasshoppers, and other land insects. They 

 appear to moult only once in the year. 



t From F.v and \iyea, in reference to its somewhat euphonous whistle. 



