559 



SCOLOPACINiE. 



SNIPES AND ALLIED SPECIES. 



Many ornithological writers include the Tringina?, Tota- 

 ninse, and Scolopacinae, as here characterized under the 

 family of Scolopacida? ; and it is certain that they all agree 

 in many respects, although the groups which I have indi- 

 cated are natural and intelligible ; and a family containing 

 all the species belonging to them seems to me rather un- 

 wieldy and improvable by division. The birds properly 

 called Snipes, and some others intimately allied to them, 

 including the Woodcocks, have a family likeness ; and when 

 viewed collectively, present some peculiar characters by 

 which they may be distinguished. Some of them, however, 

 are so closely allied to several of the Tringinae, that in 

 description they cannot be very clearly distinguished ; and 

 thus, as is usually the case with very closely connected 

 groups, it is scarcely possible to mark with certainty the 

 limits of the two families. In practice, however, a Scolo- 

 pacine is always readily distinguishable from a Tringine 

 bird. The general characters of the Scolopacinaa may, I 

 think, be expressed thus : — 



Birds of small size, with the body ovate, compact, rather 

 full ; the neck of moderate length ; the head rather small, 

 much compressed, and rounded above. The bill very long, 

 straight, slender, flexible, compressed until toward the end, 

 where it becomes enlarged, depressed, and is there, as well 

 as in its Avhole extent, covered with a soft skin, and has in 

 its terminal part numerous nervous filaments, the position of 

 which is indicated, when the parts become dry by little 

 depressions or scrobiculi ; the extreme tips of both mandibles, 



