250 SCOLOPACID, SNIPE, ETC. 
In the dried state, the soft skin shrinks tight like parchment to the bone, and 
becomes studded with small pits. The gape of the mouth is extremely short and 
narrow; the toes are cleft; the legs, neck and wings are comparatively short, and 
the body is rather full. There are no obvious seasonal or sexual differences in * 
plumage. Not completely gregarious; no such flights of woodcock and true 
snipe occur as are usually witnessed among sandpipers and bay-snipe; they 
inhabit the bog and brake rather than the open waterside; they cannot be 
treacherously massacred by scores, like some of their relatives; they are knowing 
birds, if their brains are upset, and their successful pursuit calls into action all the 
better qualities of the true sportsman. There is but one species of Philohela; two 
or three of Scolopax, and about twenty of Gallinago. The curious circumstance 
occurs, among the latter, that the tail feathers range from 12 to 26 in different 
species ; and:in those with the higher numbers, several pairs are narrow and linear— 
a character upon which the genus Spilura rests: —The singular genus Rhynchea, 
with two species, R. capensis (Africa) and FR. semicollaris (S. America), may belong 
here.— Macrorhamphus (204), containing only our species, and one other, M. semi-" 
palmatus of the Old World, has the bill exactly as in Gallinago, but is distinguished 
by more pointed wings, and differently proportioned legs, with basal webbing of 
the toes. It stands exactly between the true snipe and 
6. The godwits (213), in which we-find the same very long, wholly grooved, 
and extremely sensitive bill, which, however, is not dilated at the end, nor furrowed 
on the culmen, and is bent slightly upward; the gape, as before, is exceedingly con- 
stricted. The toes show a basal web. These are rather large birds, with the colors 
and general aspect of curlews, but the bill is not decurved and the tarsi are scutel- 
late behind. They frequent marshes, bays and estuaries, and are among the 
miscellaneous assortment of birds that are collectively designated ‘* bay-snipe.” 
There are only five or six species, of the single genus Limosa. The Terekia cinerea 
of various parts of the Old World, with the bill recurved almost as in an avocet, 
stands between the godwits and tattlers. 
c. The sandpipers (gen. 205-212) are a rather extensive group, notable for the 
variation in minor details of form, that it shows with almost every species —a cir- 
cumstance that has caused the erection of a number of unwarranted genera. Here 
the bill retains much of the sensitiveness of a snipe’s, and the gape likewise is 
much constricted ; but the bill is much shorter, averaging about equal to the head. 
One trivial circumstance affords a good clue to this group; the tail feathers are plain 
colored, or with simple edgings, while in almost all the species of other groups these 
feathers are barred crosswise. In this group the seasonal changes of plumage are 
very great; the proportions of the legs, and webbing of the toes, are variable: 
with the species, but as a rule, the toes are cleft to the base (not so in 205, 206), 
and four in number (except 212). The sandpipers belong particularly to the 
northern hemisphere, and breed in high latitudes ; they perform extensive migra- 
tions, and in winter spread over most of the world. Among them are the most 
diminutive of waders. They are probably without exception gregarious, and often 
fleck the beach in vast multitudes; they live by preference in open wet places, 
rather than in fens and marshes, and feed by probing, like snipe; the voice is 
mellow and piping. They are pretty well distinguished from both the foregoing, 
though gen. 203 connects with the snipe through 204; but shade directly into the 
following group; for instance, gen. 218-19-20, if not also 217, have been called 
Tringa, and “sandpiper.” Nearly all the forms of sandpiper are described in 
detail beyond. There are in all about 20 species. The only generic forms not 
