300 CHARADRIIFORMES CHAP. 



trailing legs after the fashion of a Moor-hen, or fluttering and 

 gliding in turn to the nearest shelter at a good pace. On the 

 ground the gait is easy. Small parties of Parra jacana are said 

 to gather together when feeding, and to utter quick, excited cries, 

 while going through a singular performance or dance, with out- 

 stretched, agitated wings and alternate slow and fluttering move- 

 ments. 1 Some species are especially quarrelsome ; Microparra has 

 a habit of bobbing its head up and down like a Ployer; the male of 

 Parra jacana is particularly sedulous in warning the female from 

 the nest ; and both parents commonly "sham wounded" to protect 

 their young. The cry is loud and harsh, or mewing in Hydro- 

 phasianus ; the food consists of insects, molluscs, seeds, and roots ; 

 the nest is a small cup, or not uncommonly a large mass, of 

 aquatic herbage, placed in grass or rushes, or on floating vegetation. 

 The four beautiful eggs are more or less pear-shaped, and are glossy 

 buff, olive, green, or brown, thickly covered with fantastic scrawls, 

 and occasionally with black or brown blotches. Metopidius 

 indicus, however, is said to lay as many as ten, while those of 

 Hydrophasianus are plain brown or green. 



A fossil Limicoline form, Palaeotringa, occurs in the Cretace- 

 ous rocks of New Jersey ; France furnishes Limosa and Tringa 

 from the Eocene, Camascelus (allied to the Plovers) from the 

 transition beds, Milnea (near Oedicnemus), Tringa, Himan- 

 topus, and Numenius from the Miocene. The same formation in 

 both France and Germany provides Helornis (akin to Limicola), 

 and Totanus; the Pliocene of Italy the latter; G-allinago is found 

 in the Chatham Islands ; Cliaradrius in North America. 



Fam. VII. Laridae. This consists of four Sub-families (1) 

 Stercorariinae or Skuas, (2) Larinae or Gulls, (3) Rhyncliopinae 

 or Skimmers, and (4) Sterninae or Terns. Mr. Saunders 2 is, how- 

 ever, probably right in distinguishing a second Family, Stercora- 

 riidae ; and possibly a third, Rhynchopidae, might be admitted. 



In the Larinae the strong, horny bill is of moderate length, 

 though exceptionally small in Rhodostethia, the maxilla being 

 curved, but hardly hooked ; in the Stercorariinae there is a distinct 

 hook, and the base is covered by a cere, said to be hard or soft 

 according to the season, and possibly shed after the manner of 

 certain Auks. 3 In the Sterninae the beak is nearly straight and 



1 Hudson, Argentine Ornithology, ii. London, 1889, p. 163. 

 2 Cat.BirdsBrit.Mus. xxv. 1896, p. 3. 3 Stejneger, Stand. N.H. iv. Boston, 1885, p. 75. 



