610 



SYSTEM A TIC SYNOPSIS. — LIMICOL^. 



224. 



aud full-webbed ; the bill is decidedly recurved, flattened, aud tapers to a needle-like point j 

 the body is depressed; the plumage underneath is thickened as in water-birds. The species 

 swim well. Himantopus is 3-toed, semipahnate, the bill nearly straight, aud not flattened ; in 

 relative length of leg it is probably not surpassed by any bird whatsoever. These two genera, 

 each of three or four species of various parts of the world, with the Ciadorhynchus pectoralis 

 of Australia, compose the family. 

 RECUKVIROS'TRA. (Lat. recurvus, bent upward; rostrum, biU. Fig. 425.) AvocETS. 



Fig. 425. —European Avocet, liecurvirostra avocetta, J nat. size. (From Brehm.) 



Bill excessively slender, more or less recurved, then the upper mandible hooked at the extreme 

 tip ; much longer than head, more or less nearly equalling tail and tarsus ; flattened on top, 

 without culminal ridge. Wings short (for a wader). Tail very short, square, less than half 

 the wing. Legs exceedingly long aud slender ; tibiaa long-denuded ; tarsus nearly twice as 

 long as middle toe and claw ; covering of legs skinny. Feet 4-toed ; the front toes full-webbed, 

 hind toe short, free. Body remarkably depressed and feathered underneath with thick duck- 

 like plumage ; altogether, as in swimming rather than as in wading birds. It is a modification 



