830 S YS TEMA riC S YNOPSIS. - LIMICOLM. 



the Atlantic coast beyoud Now Jersey ; resident in the Southern States, but in winter also mi- 

 grating to the West Indies and South America; not common on the Atlantic coast beyond 

 Massachusetts. A large, stout Tattler, known at a glance by its white- mirrored black-lined 

 wings and blue legs, too plentiful (for such a wary, restless, and noisy bird) in marshes for the 

 convenience of gunners, as its shrill reiterated cries, incessant when its breeding places are in- 

 vaded, alarm the whole neighborhood. Breeds by pairs or in small companies in fresh or salt 

 marshes; nest a slight affair in a tussock of grass or reeds just out of the water; eggs 3-4, 

 1.90-2.12 X 1.45-1.55, averaging 2.00 X 1-50, less pointedly pyriform than usual in this family, 

 brownish or buffy-olive or clay color, boldly and distinctly spotted and splashed with umher- 

 brown shades, little massed at the great end, with the usual shell-markings. 

 S. s. inorna'ta. (Lat. inoniatus, unadorned.) Western Willet. Candlestick Plover. 

 Averaging lather larger than the last, with longer and slenderer bill, fewer and finer markings 

 on a paler ground of the upper parts, and duller, more confused or broken markings on the 

 under parts, which are often suffused with a dull pinlcish-salmon color; middle tail-feathers 

 unmarked or only faintly barred. Wing 8.00; tail 3.30; tarsus 2.60; bill 2.25-2.75. Western 

 North America, E. to the Mississippi Valley, breeding from Manitoba to Texas, in migratiou 

 and during winter occurring sparingly along the S. Atlantic and Gulf States ; Mexico, in winter. 

 Neither the physical cliaracters nor the geographical distribution ascribed to this form appear 

 to be well founded. Brewster, Auk, Apr. 1887, p. 145; Coues, Key, 3d ed. 1887, p. 887; 

 4th ed. 1890, p. 905. A. 0. U. List, 2d ed. 1895, p. 95, No. 258 a. 



TOT'ANUS. (Ital. fotajio, some bird of this kind.) Tattlers. Tell-tales. Gambets. 

 Horsemen. Bill longer than head, straight or nearly so, if anything rather bent up than 

 down, very slender, without expansion at tip or furrow on culmen, lateral grooves little if any 

 more than half its length; gape reaching beyoud base of culmen. Wings long, pointed; tail 

 short, even or little rounded, barred in color. Legs very long and slender ; tibife much de- 

 nuded below ; tarsi longer than middle toe and claw, more than half as long again as middle 

 toe alone, scutellate before and behind. Toes with decided basal webbing between outer and 

 middle toe, that between inner and middle slight. Legs green or yellow (in our species), red 

 in some others (as the Common Redshank of Europe, T. totanus or T. ealidris, type of the 

 genus, and the Spotted Redshank of the same country, T. fuscus). In England the birds 

 of this genus share with those of other genera the name Sandpiper; but ours are not so called. 

 We have two well-known species of Yellow-legs, and a third, the Greenshank of Europe, 

 has once occurred as a straggler. The latter is the type of the genus Glottis, but does not 

 seem to differ in any respect of form from our Yellow-legs, and all three may well go together 

 in the subgenus Glottis, as arranged in the A. 0. U. List ; the subgenus Totanus then being 

 restricted to such species as the Redshank just named, and the Marsh Sandpiper of Europe, 

 T. stagnatilis. 



Analysis of Species. 



Legs red. (Subgenus Totancs.) A straggler to Hudson's Bay totanus 



Legs not red. (Stib(/e?)us Glottis.) 



Legs not yellow. A straggler to Florida nebularitis 



Legs yellow. Two common birds of N. Am. 



Length over 12 ; wing over 7 ; tail 3 or more ; bill over 2 ; bent up a little, short-grooved . . melanoleucus 

 Length under 12 ; wing under 7 ; tail under 3; bill under 2 ; straight, long-grooved fiavipes 



{Subgenus Totanus.) 



T. tot'anus. (For etym. see the generic name.) European Redshank. Common Pool- 

 Snipe. Of medium size in the subgenus: Length 9.50-10.00; wing about 6.00; bill 1.50; 

 tarsus 1.65. Legs orange-red: bill black, with red base; iris brown. In any plumage dis- 

 tinguished from its allies by the combination of white rump with secondaries nearly all white, 

 Europe, Asia, Africa ; in America a straggler to Hudson's Bay. One of the best known Tat- 



