762 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS.— LIMICOLM. 



slight white touches, changing on crest to brown. Sides of head and throat fantastically striped 

 with black and white ; a broad black throat-patch ; another on cheeks, across lores and along- 

 side of crown ; a third on ear-coverts ; a fourth bordering the white all around beliind. Length 

 about 9.00; extent 17.00; wing 4.75; tail 2.00; tarsus 1.20; middle toe and claw 1.60; its 

 claw alone 0.50. Adult ^ : Upper parts as in ^, but markings of wings less regular, more 



assimilated with the general variegation, and tone 

 more fulvous. No peculiar marks on head, throat 

 whitish or bufif; general tone of under parts pale 

 purplish-cinnamon, with fine motthng of black 

 and white on each feather. Young ^•. Resem- 

 bling the hen, but under parts ochrey or whitish 

 witli black variegation. Chicks, scarcely fledged, 

 3-4 inches long : Bill reddish above, whitish be- 

 low; feet dull brownish. Above, light warm 

 brown, varied with black, boldly striped with 

 white — each feather having a hammer-headed 

 white shaft-line. Some inner wing-quills like 

 back; others dusky with whitish shafts, broken- 

 barred with buff, chiefly on outer webs. Below, 



Fig. 514. — Massena Quail, (}, nat. size. in- i- -i ii ciii.i 



buny-wlute, with nuuiberless spots ot blackish 

 paired on each feather, shaip and circular on breast, furtlier back widening to bars. Chicks in 

 down : Rusty-brown above, whitish below, back obscurely spotted with dusk, a pa-ir of whitish 

 streaks on rump, a dusky.streak behind each eye, and a chestnut spot on hind head. A singu- 

 lar species, $ very showy in full plumage, inhabiting western Texas, New Mexico, and Ari- 

 zona; in the latter, W. to Fort Whipple at least, where I found it in 1864, S. far into Mexico. 

 It difi"ers much in its habits from the other Quail of that Territory, lies very hard, and is so 

 easily killed that the people recognize its innocence in an uncomplimentary name. It is a bird 

 of woodland, or at least of scrub and brush, not of the open, ranges up mountains to 9,000 feet, 

 feeds much on a certain bulbous root, and does not pack in large coveys ; nest on the ground, 

 rather well made of grasses; eggs not known to be more than a dozen, pure white, unmarked, 

 about 1.25 X 0.95, not very pointed. C. massena of all former editions of the Key ; but Ortyx 

 montezumcc Vigors, ZooL Journ. v, 1830, p. 275, is safely presumed to have priority over 

 0- massena Lesson, Cent. Zool. 1830-32, p. 189, and the latter was not properly described 

 by the proposer of the name : see Auk, Jan. 1885, p. 46. 



Order LIMICOL^ : Shore Birds; Waders. 



Commonly known as the great '* Plover-Snipe group," from the fact that the pluvialine 

 and scolopaciiie birds form the bulk of the order, which is practically equivalent to Chara- 

 driomorplice of Huxley. The name LimicolfB was bestowed by Illiger in 1811 upon certain 

 genera of the modern family Scolopacidee, but is now used in a more comprehensive sense 

 for all the Shore Birds, as distinguished from the Marsh Birds wliich form the order Pa- 

 ludicolce (see beyond). The total number of species is not large, probably under 300, but 

 the genera are disproportionally numerous. They average of small size, with rounded or 

 depressed (never extremely compressed) body, and live in open places on the ground, usually 

 by the water's edge. With rare exceptions, the head is completely feathered ; the general 

 pterylosis is of a nearly uniform pattern; the plumage is aftershafted ; tlie spinal pteryla is 

 well-defined, usually forked over the shoulders, with lateral apteria ; the crural pteryla does 

 not reach tlie suffrago; there are 10 functionally developed primaries, and a rudimentary 

 11th one; the secondaries are aquintocubital (lacking the 5th); the oil-gland is tufted. 



