270 CHARADRIIFORMES CHAP. 
Hydrophasianus has peculiar filamentous appendages to the first 
and fourth primaries ; Scolopax minor has the three exterior of the 
normal eleven primaries particularly attenuated. The secondaries 
in the Limicolae vary from ten to twenty. 
The rectrices are usually twelve; though Rhynchaea and the 
Parridae have ten, while Scolopax stenwra and S. megala possess 
twenty and twenty-six respectively, the outer of which are exceed- 
ingly stiff and narrow—not to give further instances. The tail in 
Glareola is deeply furcate and Swallow-hke, in Hydrophasianus it 
has the four median plumes very long and decurved in the breeding 
season ; but it is often quite short, as in Scolopax. The form may 
be shghtly forked, as in Chionis ; somewhat graduated or cuneate, 
as in the Thinocorythidae, Zotanus hypoleucus, and Oedicnemus ; 
rounded, as in Cursorius ; or almost even, as in Vanellus. 
The tongue is rather long and pointed, being, however, rudi- 
mentary in Nuwmenius; the nostrils are pervious, except in the 
Thinocorythidae, Glareolidae,and perhaps Dromas,and have at times 
a leathery operculum in Plovers; the syrinx in tracheo-bronchial, 
the furcula U-shaped; Parra has a decidedly muscular gizzard, 
and the Thinocorythidae possess a globular crop. The convoluted 
trachea of Lhynchaea, the papillae on the orbits of Chionis, the 
caruncles on the face of Jachetes, and the loral wattles of Lobiva- 
nellus are fully described below. The aftershaft is very small in 
the Parridae, rather large elsewhere. In adults the down is spar- 
ing; in the young it is short, thick, and commonly of a yellowish 
hue, with brown longitudinal stripes; though it may be grey, as in 
Chionis and Haematopus ; mottled with reddish and white, as in 
Snipes; or with black, orange, yellow, and white, as in Phalaropes. 
The plumage is usually plain brown or grey, with an ad- 
mixture of white, or less commonly chestnut; Vanellus, Lobiva- 
nellus, and Cursorius chalcopterus, however, exhibit metallic hues, 
and Chionis is white. Red or yellow beaks or feet adorn many 
forms. Crests occur in certain species of Vanellus, Hoplopterus, 
and Lobivanellus ; the male of Machetes (Ruff) is most remark- 
able for its lateral head-tufts and fine neck-frill, developed for the 
breeding season ; Vumenius tahitiensis has pecuhar bristly-pointed 
flank-feathers. In Scolopaa the large eyes are set unusually far 
back in the skull. The sexes are generally similar, but in Hu- 
dromias, Phalaropus, and Rhynchaea the female is brighter than 
1 See, however, Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxiv. 1896, p. 741. 
