Synopsis of Orders and Families. 



AMERICAN COOT. 



Family 23. RAILS, COOTS, AND GALLINULES. RALLIDvE. 

 Bill variable; toes always long, webbed OobedJ in only one species; wings short and 

 rounded; tail short. 



Order IX. Snipes, Sandpipers, Curlews, Plovers, Etc. 



LIMICOL^E. 



(7 families, 55 species, 4 subspecies.) 



Generally long-legged, slender-billed birds of shores and mud flats, 

 and sometimes fields. Most of them are under a foot in length; none 

 are so large as the Ibises; wings long and pointed; tail short; toes long 

 and slender, usually without webs; color generally brown or blackish 

 above, mottled and streaked with whitish and buff. Many species 

 utter characteristic piping whistles as they fly or when they take wing. 



NORTHERN PHALAROPE. 



^amily24. PHALAROPES. PHALAROPODID^E. 



">ront toes with lobes or webs; tarsus flattened; plumage thick; swimming Snipe. 



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