IBIS. GRALLATORES. IBIS. 59 



The bill is greenish-black, fading towards the tip to wood- 

 brown, and measures five inches in length ; the lores are 

 green. The head, throat, and back of the upper part 

 of the neck are pale hair-brown ; the feathers margined 

 with white, and giving a spotted appearance. On the 

 forepart of the neck are two narrow transverse bars, and 

 a large irregular spot of white. Lower part of the 

 neck, and the whole of the under parts, of a hair-brown 

 colour, the margins of the feathers having greenish re- 

 flections. Upper parts of the body, wings, and tail, 

 glossy olive-green, with faint changeable reflections of 

 purplish-red upon the scapulars and wing coverts. 

 Legs and toes blackish-green. 



FAMILY III. SCOLOPACID^E. 



THIS family, partaking, in an equal degree with that of 

 ArdeadcB, of the advantage of both elements of land and wa- 

 ter, naturally forms the other typical division of the order 

 Grallatores. In the various members of which it is com- 

 posed, the bill is long, fully developed, and admirably 

 adapted for extracting or securing their prey, in the marshes, 

 or on the shores of the ocean, where they resort ; and this 

 again is accompanied by a proportionate length of leg, giving 

 them the power of wading to some depth in search of it. In 

 tracing the affinities of the family, we find it beautifully con- 

 nected with the preceding one of Ardeadce, through the in- 

 terposition of NumeniuSy which approaches very closely to 

 the genus Ibis of that family in the form of the bill. To the 

 Rallidce, another but aberrant family of this order, its con- 

 nexion is readily traced by means of Phalaropus and Lobipes, 

 which possess the lobated foot of the Coots, and whose ha- 

 bits (as being more aquatic), place them at the extremity of 

 the Scolopacidce ; and to the fifth family, or Charadriadce, 



