NATURAL SCIENCES OF PIIILADELPniA. 187 



authors. It has been placed in seven different genera, — Scolopax, Numenius, 

 Triiif/a, Fahincllns, Pelidna, Ancjilocheilus and (according to Gen. Rep.) Erolia. 

 It was probably the long, slender, decurved bill which caused some of the 

 earlier authors to consider it as a Numenius. The Numenius aubarquata, Bechst., 

 or the Scolopax subarqiiata, (jrm., is the summer plumage of this species, and 

 the Numenius Afrkanus, Lath., or the Scolopax Africunus, Gra., the winter. The 

 N. ferrugineus, Mey. is this species, according to Vieillot; and Temmhick also 

 gives N. pygmmus, Bechst. as a synonym, considering it as the young before- the 

 first moult. The "Red Sandjiiper" of Latham and Pennant refers to this 

 species, though in the synonymy the former gives T. Icelandica, Linn, and T. 

 fen-uginea, Briinn., both of which names are synonyms of T. canutus. The 

 relationships of Erolia variegata or ^-Erolia vana have already been discussed 

 under the head of Ancylocheilus. 



PELIDNA Cuvier. 



? 9 Sckoeniclus, Mce bring, Gen. Av. 1752, 77. 



Felidna, Cuvier, Regne Anim. 1S17, 490. Typus T. cinclus, L. 



Char. Bill stout, much longer than the head of tarsus, decurved, depressed, 

 tip somewhat expanded and punctulate. Grooves in both mandibles very deep 

 and distinct. Wings moderate ; tertials long, narrow and flowing. Tail rather 

 long, deeply doubly emarginate, the central feathers projecting. Legs mode- 

 rate, or raiher long. Tarsus but little if any longer than the middle toe. Bare 

 portion of tibia more than half the tarsus. Toes rather long, and narrowly 

 margined. 



The essential characters of this genus lie in the long, stout, decurved bill, 

 longer than the head or tarsus, and the tarsus but little longer than the middle 

 toe, approaching in this respect to Actodromas, to which, in the doubly emar- 

 ginate tail and, to some extent, the general pattern of coloration and changes 

 of plumage, it is still more nearly related. Its affinities to Ancylocheilus, which 

 are close, will be found discussed under that head. The genus is very variable 

 in the length of its bill, though the legs, as usual among the Tringece, are pretty 

 constant. The colors of the two species of the group are subject to many and 

 great variations dependent upon age and season, which in each have given rise 

 to a second nominal species. In addition to these, minor differences in size 

 and color have been made the grounds of specific distinction by some European 

 writers. With these, however, the present monograph has nothing to do, since, 

 in according to the American bird specific distinction from that of Europe, the 

 intricate and difficult synonymy of the latter is excluded. 



The genus Pelidna, of Cuvier, (1817), has been employed by different writers 

 in a very unnatural manner to designate the smaller Sandpipers indiscrimi- 

 nately, nearly all the species having been at one time or another included in it, 

 grouped together without the slightest regard to their natural affinities. This 

 is pel haps due in a measure to the very loose manner in which it is character- 

 ized by Cuvier, who merely says, in instituting the genus, — " les Pelidnes ne 

 sont que de petites maubeches, a bee un peu plus long que la tete, et dont les 

 pieds n'ont ni bordures ni palmures." The genus has in consequence fallen 

 somewhat into disrepute among later ornithologists, who generally avoid the 

 use of it ; but still it must stand for the type upon which it was founded (Tl 

 cinclus, L.) if no other name has been previouslj' proposed for the same group. 

 Sckoeniclus, of Moehring, (1752), is said by some authors to refer to that type ; 

 but 1 can find no characters which restrict it to the T. cinclus. The brief diag- 

 nosis is as follows : " Rostrum digitis cum ungue fere aequale. Pes tetradac- 

 tyla. Membrana dimidium primum articulum inter extimum et medium digitum 

 occupans." Now as the bill is not " about equal to the middle toe and claw," 

 but very much longer, and as there is scarcely the rudiment of a membrane 

 between the outer and middle toe, which does not nearly occupy " half the first 

 joint," the only character left which really belongs to the T. Alpina is " pes 



1861.] 



