492 



PLOVER TRIBE. 



lengths of the central and outer tail-feathers. The chief breeding-haunts are 

 beyond the limits of forest; but in winter this species spreads over Europe, 

 Northern India, the Malayan region, China, New Guinea, Mexico, and Central 

 America. Finally, Wilson's phalarope (P wilsoni), which breeds on the great 

 lakes of North America, and migrates in winter as far south as Patagonia, differs 

 from both the others in the greater length of its slender tapering bill, which 

 exceeds an inch. 



The Hard-Billed The term sandpiper being a general one, applied collectively to 

 Sandpipers and many members of the family, it is necessary to prefix the term hard- 

 Ruffs, billed to those of which we have now to treat. These birds are 

 specially characterised by the nearly straight beak, and by the feathers of the 



RUFFS AND REEVES. 



forehead extending in advance of the angle of the gape. In length the beak is 

 moderate, and it has its tip hard, and the nostrils slit-like and lateral. The first 

 toe is always present ; and the metatarsus (except in a Pacific species where they 

 are absent from the greater portion of the back) is covered with scutes both before 

 and behind ; and some portion of the tibia is bare. In the long and pointed wings 

 the first quill is the longest ; but there is considerable variation in the form and 

 number of the tail-feathers, which in the great majority of species are barred. 

 The genus comprises about a score of species, of which a large moiety are repre- 

 sented in the British Islands, and throughout the breeding-season are distributed 

 over the boreal and temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, but in winter 

 become collectively cosmopolitan. Frequenting moors, marshes, and tundras during 

 the breeding-season, these familiar and pretty little birds resort to the sea-coasts 

 in the winter throughout many portions of their range and are in the habit of 



