514 LIGAMENT— LIMPKIN 



shewn by Randle Holme's Academy of Armory published at Chester 

 in 1688, wherein he stated (p. 266) that three heads of the Lever 

 " couped " were borne by the family of that name,^ and identified 

 the bird with the Lepela^, Leplar, and Lefler (or Lofflar) of Low and 

 High Dutch, which last, he remarks, "we more finely pronounce 

 Lever." Now all these are well-known names of what we now call 

 the Spoonbill, a bird which on incontestable evidence had several 

 breeding-stations in England, so that places may well have taken 

 their name from it ; but on the other hand, Holme's assertion that 

 this bird was ever called Lever or Liver in English wants confirma- 

 tion, and is said to contravene all etymological laws. 



LIGAMENT, a tie of connective tissue, binding several parts 

 or organs to one another. Ligaments form an important featiu^e in 

 all joints where the bones are held together by bands of little 

 variability, and are especially strong in the region of the shoulder 

 and the knee. Skeletal Ligaments mostly consist of modified 

 periosteum and fibrous cartilage, and hence they occasionally ossify, 

 causing bones that were originally distinct to unite. Sometimes 

 tendons which have lost their muscles are converted into Ligaments, 

 or obliterated vessels act as bands between intestinal organs. 



LIMICOL^, Illiger's name in 1811 for a "Family" com- 

 posed of the genera Numenius, Scolopax, Ereunetes, A otitis, Strepsilas 

 and Tringa, practically that is the Scolopacidm of later authors ; 

 but since his time used in a general sense for all the Scolopacidd& 

 and Charadriidx, the latter of which he had placed in a separate 

 Family, Litter ales. 



LIMPKIN, a bird so called in Florida, because, though swift of 

 foot, some of its movements resemble those of a limping man. It 

 is the Aramus pidus of modern American ornithologists,^ and 

 together -with its southern congener A. scolopaceus, with which it 

 was long confounded (if indeed .they be distinct), is considered to 

 hold a place midway between the Gruidse (Crane) and the Rallidm 

 (Rail), its osteological (Eyton, Osteol. Av. p. 200, pi. xiv. K) and 

 pterylographical characters being those of the former, while its 

 digestive organs (as described by Macgillivray for Audubon) are 

 those of the latter. Beside Florida it inhabits the coast-districts 

 of Central America, and the Greater Antilles, being known in 

 Jamaica as the " Clucking Hen," but the French name " Courlan," 



^ A Lancashire family interesting to ornithologists, since from it sprang Sir 

 Ashton Lever, famous for his Museum. 



- In the belief that it is the species mentioned by AVilliam Bartram as being 

 called by the Indians Epliouskyka (signifying "Crying Bird") and by him 

 Tantalus jndiis ; but neither his description of it nor his drawing, as afterwards 

 given by Barton {Trans. Linn. Soc. xii. pi. 1), is very accurate. 



