270 LIMOSA .EGOCEPHALA. 



Male in Winter. — The body is moderately stout, the 

 neck long and slender, the head rather small, oblong, com- 

 pressed, rounded above, narrowed and sloping anteriorly. 

 The bill is more than twice the length of the head, tapering, 

 higher than broad at the base, toward the end rather de- 

 pressed, almost quite straight in its whole length ; both 

 mandibles flexible, covered with soft skin until near the end, 

 laterally grooved nearly to the points, which are slightly en- 

 larged and obtuse. The upper mandible has the ridge con- 

 vex in its whole length, unless at the tip, where it is flat- 

 tened ; the lower has the angle long and very narrow ; the 

 edges of both are soft, blunt, and grooved. 



The nostrils are linear, four-twelfths long, basal, in the 

 fore part of the short bare sinus. The eyes are small, their 

 aperture measuring three-twelfths across; that of the ear 

 four-twelfths. The legs are long and very slender ; the 

 tibia bare for more than a third, and scutellate before and 

 behind ; the tarsus with thirty-eight scutella. The toes are 

 of moderate length, slender, marginate, flattened beneath ; 

 the first very small and elevated, with ten scutella ; the 

 second with twenty-eight, the third forty, the fourth thirty- 

 eio-ht ; the inner web extremely small, the outer moderate, 

 but running out narrowing to the end of both toes. The 

 claws are rather long, slender, little arched, compressed; 

 the inner thin edge of that of the third toe with five 

 serratures. 



The feathers of the head and neck are oblong and blended ; 

 of the body rather compact, ovate, and rounded. The wings, 

 when closed, reach nearly to the tip of the tail, and are long, 

 narrow, and pointed, of thirty quills ; the first longest, and 

 slightly curved, the other primaries rapidly decreasing ; the 

 secondaries slightly incurved, obliquely rounded ; some of 

 the inner much elongated and tapering. The tail is short, 

 almost even, of twelve rounded feathers, of which the lateral 

 are nearly two-twelfths longer. 



The bill is orange-yellow for two-thirds of its length, the 

 remaining part black. The iris is brown. The feet are 

 greyish-black, the claws black. The head, and neck all 

 round, are pale brownish-grey, streaked with greyish-brown ; 



