844 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS.— PALUDICOL^. 



sus 2.00 or less. General tone little rufescent, under parts and variegation of upper rather 

 ochraceous than rufous. Top of head variegated throughout, without median light line, 

 but with tolerably well-defined whitish superciliary stripes. Upper parts brownish-black, 



speckled with ochraceous or very pale cinnamon- 

 brown, the general effect as in Imdsonicus; dark 

 coloration in excess of the pale. Tail barred much 

 as in hudsonicus, the broader light bars often ru- 

 fescent. Primaries and most secondaries plain 

 fuscous, entirely lacking the variegation seen in the 

 foregoing. Under parts ochraceous, or somewhat 

 rufescent, very variable, frequently whitish, marked 

 as in other species with dusky streaks, arrow-heads, 

 or bars, but these more numerous, frequently occu- 

 pying all the under parts, excepting chin and mid- 

 dle of belly. Axillars and lining of wings rufescent, 

 barred throughout with dark brown. Bill black, 

 with base of lower mandible pale or yellowish ; feet 

 greenish -black. In handling perhaps 100 fresh- 

 killed birds, I have noted much variation in tone, 

 but the species is unmistakable. Eastern North 

 America at large, breeding in the Arctic regit»ns, 

 Fio. 595. -Eskimo Curlew. ^^^^ migrating through the U. S., as far as south- 



ern South America. More common in interior than on Atlantic coast of U. S. ; west to Kansas 

 and Nebraska. Extraordinarily abundant in some places during migration, as in Labrador, 

 where it fairly swarmed in the past in August. Often occurs with Golden Plover. In northern 

 regions, feeds chiefly on the crow-berry, Empetrum nigrum. Nest in open plains. Eggs 4, 

 1.90-2.12 X 1.33-1.40; olive-drab, tendmg to green, gray, or brown in different cases, with 

 large, bold, and numerous markings of bistre, chocolate, and sepia, tending to aggregate on 

 the greater end, with ordinary stone-gray shell- marks. 



Order PALUDICOL^: Marsh Birds. 



(Alectorides of the KEY, 1884-90. — Paludicol^ of the A. 0. U. 1886-95.) 

 {Nearly equivalent to Geranomorph^s: of Huxley, J 867.) 



Like the " order" Picarice (see p. 537), this is a miscellaneous assortment or " polymor- 

 phic group " of birds, held together because ornithologists would not know what to do with its 

 members if these were taken apart. It contains all Wading Birds of what may be called the 

 Crane-Rail type, as distinguished from tlie Plover-Snipe type, which is comprehended by the 

 preceding order Limicolce — the name Paludicolce being now adopted by way of verbal antith- 

 esis with Limicolce. 



In the present state of ornithology the " order" Paludicolce is insusceptible of satisfactory 

 definition ; I have seen no attempts to define it that were not lamentable failures, and am indis- 

 posed to add one of my own to the number. This house of refuge — I wisli I could say, house 

 of correction for refractory birds — contains a few impoi'tant families of Waders which cannot 

 be assigned either to Limicolce or to Herodiones without spoiling the definition of those orders, 

 and which are consequently inmates of this home for the destitute — this organized charitable 

 institution — called Paludicolce or Alectorides.^ Aside from certain unconformable families, to 



1 The inept name Alectorides, which I was driven to adopt in the 2d edition of the Key, 1884, was proposed in 1820 

 by Temminck for an order containing the genera Psophia, Dicholophus, Glareo/a, Palamedea, and Chauna — not a Crane 

 or a Rail in the lot, and not a gallinaceous bird to justify the etymology of the word (Gr. aAcKTwp, alector, a cock). 



