798 



S YS TEMA TIC S Y NOP SIS. — LIMICOLM. 



vol. 50, pi. 6, p. 255. The Red Phalarope 9 -'^^J the Gray Phalarope of Latham are both this 

 species; the Red oue is Phalaropus hyperboreiis 9 Lath. 1790; Wils. Am. Orn. ix, 1814, 

 p. 75, pi. 78, fig. 4; and the Gray oue became Ph. lohatus Lath. 1790. The present species is 

 the Phalaropus fulicarius of authors, as in all editions of the Key. P. rufus Bechst. 1809. 

 P. platyrhynchus Temm. 1815. P. griseus Leach, 1816. P. rufescens Keys, and Blas. 

 1840. P. platyrostris Nordm. 1840. P. dnereus Fritsch, 1871. Crymophilus fulicarius, 

 A. 0. U. Lists. 



Family SCOLOPACIDjE : Snipe, Sandpipers, etc. 



Snipe and their allies form a well-defined and perfectly natural assemblage, one of the two 

 largest limicoline families, agreeing with Plover in most essential respects, yet well distin- 

 guished from pluvialine birds. In general, the bill is much elongated, frequently several times 

 longer than head, and in those cases in which it is as short as in Plover, it does not show the 

 particular, somewhat pigeon-like, shape described under Charadriince, being slender and soft- 

 skinned throughout. It is gen- 

 erally straight, but frequently 

 curved up or down, and in one 

 genus spoon-shaped at the end 

 (Eurynorhynchus) . The nasal 

 grooves, always long and nar- 

 row, range from ^ to almost the 

 whole length of bill ; similar 

 grooves usually occupy sides of 

 under mandible ; interramal 

 space correspondingly long and 

 narrow, nearly naked. This 

 length, slenderness, grooving, 

 and peculiar sensitiveness, are 

 prime characteristics of the scol- 

 opacine bill. The gape, never 

 ample, is generally very short 

 and narrow, reaching little, if 

 any, beyond base of bill. The nostrils are short narrow slits, exposed. The head is com- 

 pletely feathered to bill (except in one species), at base of which ptilosis stops abruptly with- 

 out forming projecting antiae. The wings commonly show the thin pointed contour described 

 under Limicola:, but they are occasi(jnally short and rounded. The tail, always short and soft, 

 has as a* rule 12 rectrices ; in one genus, however, there are from 12 to 26. The crura are rarely 

 feathered to suffrago. The tarsi are scutellate before and behind, and reticulate on sides, ex- 

 cept in the Curlews (Numenius), where they are scutellate only in front (yet with the excep- 

 tion to this exception, thus proving the rule, of Numeniiis minutits, a small Curlew which has 

 the tarsi scutellate behind as before, and on this account has been made type of another 

 genus, Mesoscolopax) ; and in Heteractitis, where the tarsal envelope is variable. They are 

 entirely reticulate (the normal state in Plover) only in the remarkable Ibidorhyncha struthersi, 

 now made type of a special subftimily. The hallux is absent in only 3 genera — Ibidorhyncha, 

 Pheqornis, and Calidris; anterior toes commonly show one basal web, and often two, but in 

 many genera they are entirely cleft. The presence or absence of basal webbing has been made 

 the sole basis oi Totanince and Scolopacince as two subfamilies of Scolopacid(C ; but this is a 

 generic character only, and cannot be used to mark oflF subfamilies, because to do so would throw 



-^^S^' 



Fig. 555. — Common Snipe. (From Seebohm's Charadriidae.) 



