CHAPTER XXXII. 



Shore Birds Praecocial. 



This is the order of the snipes, the plovers, the 

 phalaropes, the sandpipers, the woodcocks, and the 

 curlews. The birds are, on the whole, rather shy, small 

 in size, and the body is rounded or depressed. They are 

 ground birds, living in open places by the water's edge. 

 The head is completely feathered and the plumage is of 

 nearly uniform coloration, at least not with decided 

 contrasts of colors. The primaries are graduated in 

 length from the first to the tenth; the secondaries also 

 are of uneven length, lengthening from the outside inward; 

 this makes the wing show two decided points when the 

 bird is flying. The tail is, in most of the birds, quite 

 short, and has from twelve the usual number up to 

 twenty-six rectrices. 



The legs are, in some of the birds, enormously 

 lengthened, are short in only a few genera, and are usually 

 quite slender. The hind toe is, in all the birds, short ; and 

 in some of them it is absent altogether. (Fig. 112.) The 

 bill of the different birds varies in length and shape ; but in 

 nearly all of them it is slender and contracted from the 

 front of the head; it is usually as long as the head, and 

 in some of the representatives it is much longer than 

 the head. For most of its length the bill is covered with 

 a softish skin; and in one or two of the different families 



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