2266 PLOVERS, SANDPIPERS. SNIPE. JACANAS. GULLS 



"O 



KNOT SANDPIPER. 



being covered with scutes both in front and behind. The beak, which is narrow, 

 slightly compressed, and rugose toward the tip, where it may be slightly bent 

 down, is always shorter than the combined length of the metatarsus and third toe: 

 the first primary quill of the wing largely exceeds the fourth in length, and the tail 



is uniformly colored. In addition 

 to the sanderling, the group com- 

 prises thirteen species, with certain 

 local varieties, and is confined in 

 the breeding season to the higher 

 latitudes of the Northern Hemi- 

 sphere, although in winter becom- 

 ing cosmopolitan. Of the numer- 

 ous species visiting the British 

 Islands, only the dunlin breeds 

 there, and that but sparingly. 

 Among these the curlew sandpiper 

 (T. arcuata) demands notice on 

 account of its curved beak, while 

 still more remarkable is the 

 broadly expanded tip of the beak 

 of the spoon-billed sandpiper (T. 



pygnuza), a species probably breeding to the northward of Behring Strait, and 

 separated by many writers, as Eurhinorhynchus. The sanderling ( Calidris arenaria), 

 easily recognized by the absence of the first toe, the black legs, and broad beak, 

 breeds near the coasts of many portions of the Arctic Ocean, although not on the 

 Norwegian and Russian portions, and has been taken as far south as Java. 



Three sandpipers from the Southern Hemisphere, two of which inhabit the 

 Australian region and the other South America, differ from the preceding in the 

 slight inequality in the length of the first four primary quills of the wing, and are 

 thus assigned to a distinct genus, Phegornis. 



The beautiful birds commonly termed painted snipe, of which there 

 are three species inhabiting the warmer regions of both Hemispheres, 

 are distinguished from the members of the subfamily yet noticed by the difference 

 in length between the shortest and longest primary quill being much less instead 

 of much more than the length of the beak. They resemble the preceding forms, 

 however, in that the length of the beak is much less than twice that of the meta- 

 tarsus, and in the possession of a pale median line on the crown of the head, and 

 two light stripes down the back, they are like the true snipe. The foot is four 

 toed, and a considerable portion of the tibia is bare. 



The best-known representative of the genus is the common painted snipe 

 (Rhynchcea capensis} so familiar to all snipe shooters in Bengal which is dis- 

 tributed all over Africa south of the Sahara, Madagascar, Arabia, India, Ceylon, 

 Burma, and the Malayan region, and thence to the Philippines, China, Southern 

 Japan, etc. This is one of the two largest species, and is specially characterized by 

 the large number of buff eye-like spots on the primary quills of the wings. The 



Painted Snipe 



