Family CHARADRIID^. 



In 1886, in the ' Ibis,' p. 122, et .teq., Seebohm thus discoursed on 

 the position of the Snipes in the great family of " Plovers." 



'The Snipes belong to the family Charadriidae, which also 

 includes the Sandpipers, Curlews, Plovers and a few other allied 

 genera. From all these birds they are very easily and very distinctly 

 characterized. Most of the CJiaradriidse are web-footed ; they have 

 a distinct web at the base of the toes, sometimes much more 

 developed between the outer and the middle toe ; but the Snipes, 

 some of the Sandpipers, and the Turnstones are exceptions to this 

 rule, having no rudimentary web between any of the toes, which 

 are cleft to the base. Again, most of the Charadriidae have com- 

 paratively long legs and short bills ; the Snipes on the contrary have 

 short legs and long bills. The only birds in this family (except the 

 Snipes) in which the bill is as long as or longer than twice the length 

 of the tarsus are the females of one or two species of Curlews and 

 one or two species of Sandpiper, none of which have all the toes 

 cleft to the base. The genus Scolopax may therefore be diagnosed 

 as follows : — 



" Charadriidx having the bill twice as long as the tarsus, and all 

 the toes cleft to the base." 



He, however, comes to the conclusion in this paper that one 

 cannot divide the group (excluding Bostratula) into genera and that 

 these species must all come under the one genus Scolopax. 



He first shows that they cannot be divided by any structural 

 diagnosis, the two main points of which may be said to be the 

 amount of feathering on the tibi* and the number of tail feathers. 



He, however, points out that there are two characteristics which 

 divide five members of the group from all others, viz., the nature of 

 the markings on the head and the curious silvery tips to the feathers 

 of the tail underneath. 



These characteristics appear quite sufficiently satisfactory, and it 

 is upon these that most naturalists now divide the genera Scolopax 

 and Gallinago, 

 1 



