144 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



'^Scolopacidae Carus, Handb. Zool., i, 1868, 334 (includes Dromadidae!). — 



Sharpe, Review Rec. Att. Clasaif. Birds, 1891, 73 (includes Phalaropodidae 



and Recurvirostridse). 

 <^Totaninae Oabus, Handb. Zool., i, 1868, 335.— Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., 



xxiv, 1896, xi, 91, 337; Hand-list, i, 1899, xv, 157.— Salvin and Godman, 



Biol. Oentr.-Am., Aves, iii, 1903, 364. 

 <CScolopacinse Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxiv, 1896, xii, 91, 520; Hand-list, 



i, 1899, xvi, 162.— Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Am., Aves, iii, 1903, 384. 

 =Scolopacin3s Sclater and Salvin, Nom. Av. Neotr., 1873, 144. 



Very small to very large Charadriiformes with tarsus transversely 

 scutellate both in front and behind (except in most of the Numenieae, 

 in which the planta tarsi is covered with small hexagonal scales), 

 less than twice as long as middle toe with claw, and not unusually 

 compressed; bare portion of tibia shorter than middle toe with claw, 

 and toes without a conspicuous lateral membrane. 



The Scolopacidae are small, medium-sized, or large shore-birds 

 allied to the Charadriidse (Plovers) but differmg in the scutellate 

 intsead of reticulate acrotarsium, differently formed bill, and excep- 

 tional absence of the hallux. They are also closely related to the 

 Phalaropodidse (Phalaropes) and Recurvirostridse (Avocets and 

 Stilts) from which they differ, in part, in the characters mentioned in 

 the above brief diagnosis. Typical genera are very different indeed 

 from any members of the related families; but the Scolopacidae em- 

 brace such a large number of forms that it is difficult to find charac- 

 ters (external ones, at least) which will serve to distinguish them all, 

 as a family, from the groups mentioned. TEe most highly specialized 

 subfamily, the Scolopacinae, comprising the woodcocks and true 

 snipes, has the bill much elongated, covered by a soft skin, and 

 provided at the tip with extremely sensitive nerves, which enable 

 these birds, by probing the soil or mud, to detect, by the sense of 

 touch, worms and other minute animal forms on which they feed. 

 The eye is large and placed unusually high in the head, and the ear 

 is placed beneath or even anterior to the center of the orbit. These 

 characters are most pronounced in the woodcocks (genera Scolo'pax 

 and Philohela), being slightly less developed in the snipes (genera 

 Gallinago, etc.), and still less so in intermediate forms (Limosa, 

 Pseudoscohimx, Limnodromus , and Microjjalama, which lead directly 

 from the Scolopacinas to the Eroliinae, though probably all belong- 

 ing to the latter group. 



The Scolopacidae are among the most widely dispersed of birds, a 

 largo proportion of the species being more or less cosmopolitan; but 

 this is owing to their extensive migration, a very great majority of 

 them being confined during the breeding season to the more northern 

 portions of the northern hemisphere, in subarctic and cold-temperate 

 districts of Europe, Asia, and North America. More than 30 species, 

 belonging to nineteen genera, are exclusively American, and of these 

 only about twelve, belonging mostly to Gallinago or closely allied 



