494 



PLOVER TRIBE, 



eastwards of the Yenisei ; while in North America it is represented by the American 

 bar -tailed god wit (L. fedoa), in which the axillaries and under wing -coverts 

 are chestnut. Rarer in Britain than the bar-tailed species, the black-tailed godwit 



(L. melanura) may be recognised 

 by the tail-feathers being black 

 with white bases, and by the white 

 axillaries. This Old World form 

 is represented in Eastern Asia by 

 a variety, while in the New World 

 its place is taken by the American 

 black-tailed godwit (L. hudsonica), 

 distinguished by its dark brown 

 axillaries and under wing-coverts. 

 All the godwits migrate far south 

 in winter, the two Old World 

 kinds then reaching Africa and 

 India, and their eastern varieties 

 visiting Australia. Although fre- 

 BAR-TAILED GODWIT. quently breeding far inland, the 



godwits are essentially shore-birds 



in winter, and to suit them for such a habitat acquire in autumn a mud-coloured 

 livery. 



snipe-Beaked The four species of the genus Ereunetes form a kind of connect- 



sandpipers. i n g li n k between the preceding and the snipe, having the frontal 

 feathers arranged as in the former, but the extremity of the beak soft, expanded, 

 and rugose, as in the latter. The best known species is the red-breasted sandpiper 

 (or snipe, as it is generally called), which breeds in Arctic America, where it is 

 represented by two varieties, and migrates in winter as far as Brazil and Chili, 

 occasionally struggling to Western Europe. In Siberia it is replaced by 

 Taczanowsky's sandpiper (E. taczanowskii). 



Long associated with the plovers, which they resemble in general 

 bodily conformation and the shortness of the beak, the turnstones are 

 classed by Mr. Seebohm with the snipes; and whether such an arrangement be 

 natural or artificial, it certainly enables us to define the third subfamily, or Scolopa- 

 cince, with ease and exactness. Its members may be distinguished from the 

 preceding forms by their toes being free to the base, and having no trace of webs. 

 The turnstones differ from the other members of the assemblage, and thereby 

 resemble the plovers, in that the nostrils extend beyond the basal fourth of the beak ; 

 the beak itself being short, thick at the base, tapering, and somewhat conical ; 

 while the metatarsus is covered with scutes in front, and reticulated behind. In 

 the elongated wings the first quill is the longest, and the short and nearly 

 even tail includes twelve feathers. The tibia is bare for a short distance, and 

 the first toe is present. The turnstones are represented by three species, all of 

 which breed in the Arctic regions, and migrate south in winter. The common 

 iurnstone (Strepsilas interpres), which is a circumpolar species, visiting the 

 British coasts in autumn and spring, and occasionally tarrying there for the winter, 



Turnstones. 



