300 CHARADRIIFORMES CHAP. 
trailing legs after the fashion of a Moor-hen, or fluttering and 
gliding in turn to the nearest shelter at a good pace. On the 
ground the gait is easy. Small parties of Parra jacana are said 
to gather together when feeding, and to utter quick, excited cries, 
while going through a singular performance or dance, with out- 
stretched, agitated wings and alternate slow and fluttering move- 
ments.’ Some species are especially quarrelsome ; Microparra has 
a habit of bobbing its head up and down like a Plover; the male of 
Parra jacana is particularly sedulous in warning the female from 
the nest ; and both parents commonly “sham wounded” to protect 
their young. ‘The cry is loud and harsh, or mewing in Hydro- 
phasianus ; the food consists of insects, molluscs, seeds, and roots ; 
the nest 1s a small cup, or not uncommonly a large mass, of 
aquatic herbage, placed in grass or rushes, or on floating vegetation. 
The four beautiful egos are more or less pear-shaped, and are glossy 
buff, olive, green, or brown, thickly covered with fantastic scrawls, 
and occasionally with black or brown blotches.  Jetopidius 
indicus, however, is said to lay as many as ten, while those of 
Hydrophasianus are plain brown or green. 
A fossil Limicoline form, Palacotringa, occurs in the Cretace- 
ous rocks of New Jersey; France furnishes Limosa and Tringa 
from the Eocene, Camascelus (alhed to the Plovers) from the 
transition beds, JZilnea (near Oedienemus), Tringa, Himan- 
topus, and Numenius from the Miocene. The same formation in 
both France and Germany provides Helornis (akin to Limicola), 
and Totanus ; the Pliocene of Italy the latter; Gallinago is found 
in the Chatham Islands; Charadrius in North America. 
Fam. VII. Laridae.—This consists of four Sub-families (1) 
Stercorartinae or Skuas, (2) Larinae or Gulls, (3) Rhynchopinae 
or Skimmers, and (4) Sterninae or Terns. Mr. Saunders” is, how- 
ever, probably right in distinguishing a second Family, Stercora- 
riidae ; and possibly a third, Rhynchopidae, might be admitted. 
In the Larinae the strong, horny bill is of moderate length, 
though exceptionally small in Rhodostethia, the maxilla being 
curved, but hardly hooked ; in the Stercorariinae there is a distinct 
hook, and the base is covered by a cere, said to be hard or soft 
according to the season, and possibly shed after the manner of 
certain Auks.’ In the Sterninae the beak is nearly straight and 
1 Hudson, Argentine Ornithology, ii. London, 1889, p. 163. 
* Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. xxv.1896, p.3. ° Stejneger, Stand. N. H. iv. Boston, 1885, p.75. 
