. SCOL OP A CID^ : TA TTLERS. 643 



black. This curious tracery, best seen from below, is diagnostic; though the precise pat- 

 tern varies interminably. The patch of under coverts at the bases of the primaries have 

 the same character. Axillars white ; lining of wings white or rufescent. Iris brown. 

 Hill brownish-black; legs greenish or yellowish. Length 7.50-8.25; extent about 16.00; 

 wing 5.00-5.25; tail 2.50; bill along culmen 0.67-0.75, along gape 1.00; tarsus 1.20; 

 liddle toe and claw under 1.00. Fall plumage : Under parts less rufescent, frequently simply 

 awny- whitish; and the broad ochrey or tawny edgings of the feathers of the upper parts 

 replaced by narrow whitish streakings, in a set of semicircles. Wings and tail as in spring. 

 N. Am. at large, and a frequent European straggler, but apparently nowhere abundant; 

 migratory in the U. S. ; S. in winter through S. Am. ; breeds in high latitudes. Eggs usually 

 4, pointedly pyriform, 1.40 to 1.50 X 1.02 to 1.10 ; the ground clay, sometimes slightly oliva- 

 ceous, often quite grayish ; markings extremely bold and sliarp, in heavy blotches and indeter- 

 minate spots aU over the eggs, but largest and most numerous at the greater end ; colors rich 

 umber-brown, of varying shade. Nearest these blotched samples are the splashed ones, with 

 markings massed at greater end, elsewhere splattered in small pattern. Others are spotted with 

 narrow markings radiating fi-om the large end, almost wreathing about the greatest diameter. 

 All with the usual neutral-tint shell-markings ; most with scratcljy blackish marks over all. 



250. HETERO'SCELUS. (Gr. erepos, heteros, different, otherwise ; a-KeXos, skelos, leg.) Short- 

 legged Tattler. Bill totanine, longer than head or tarsus, straiglit, rather stout, much com- 

 pressed, both mandibles grooved for about two-thirds their length, with inflected tomia beyond. 

 Gape t>f mouth extending beyond base of column; feathers of equal exteiit on sides of both 

 mandibles, those of chin reaching much farther. Wings long, pointed, folding about to end of 

 tail ; 1st and 2d quills subequal and longest. Tail short, less than half the wing, nearly even. 

 Legs short, somewhat rugous, reticulate except on front of tarsus, where imperfectly or incom- 

 pletely scutellate ; tibiae denuded for a space about half as long as tarsus ; tarsus longer than 

 middle toe and claw, shorter than bill; outer longer than inner lateral toe; a large basal web 

 between outer and middle, a rudimentary one between middle and inner ; hind toe long, about 

 equalling 1st joint of inner toe. One species, remarkable for the character of tarsal envelope 

 and perfect uniformity of color of upper parts. 



64^. H. inca'nus. (Lat. incanus, quite gray.) Wandering Tattler. Upper parts perfectly 

 uniform dark plumbeous, or slaty-gray, including the wholly unmarked tail, wing-coverts, and 

 inner quiUs, the longer quills gradually blackening, the shaft of the first primary nearly all 

 white ; a white line over eye. Lining of wings, axillars, and sides of body colored like the back, 

 but varied with white. Under parts in general white ; in one plumage without markings, but 

 lieavily shaded on neck, breast, and sides with the color of the back ; in another, heavily 

 marked with blackish-plumbeous — speckled on throat, streaked on neck, wavy-barred on breast, 

 sides, and crissum. BiU black, apparently pale at base of under mandible. Lcngtii about 

 10.00; wing 6.50; tail 3.00; bill 1.50; tarsus 1.25; mid- 

 dle toe and claw a little less. A species of almost universal 

 distribution on the coast and islands of the Pacific, com- 

 mon in summer on the shores of Alaska ; described under 

 at least twelve different names. 



25 1 . NUME'NIUS. (Gr. veos, neos, new ; /iJjwy, mene, the 

 moon : the long curved bill, like a crescent. Fig. 450.) 

 Curlews. Bill of very variable length, always longer 

 than head, probably always exceeding the tarsus, some- 

 times more than length of entire leg; slender, curved Fig. 450.- Long-bUled Curlew, greatly 

 downward, the tip of the upper mandible knobbed and 

 overhanging the end of the lower; obsoletely grooved nearly to end. Gape of moutli 

 extended beyond base of culmen. Feathers reaching about equally far on sides of each man- 



