496 



PLOVER TRIBE. 



Cleft-Footed 

 Sandpipers. 



Under this general title may be grouped a considerable assem- 

 blage of small wading birds, of which the knot (Tringa canutus), the 

 dunlin (T. alpina), the broad-billed sandpiper (T. platyrhyncha), the little stint 

 (T. minuta), and the sanderling (Calidris arenaria), are familiar British examples ; 

 the last-named forming a genus by itself on account of the absence of the first toe, 

 which is present in the remainder. These birds differ from the turnstones in that 

 the nostrils are situated in the basal fourth of the beak, and in the metatarsus 

 being covered with scutes both in front and behind. The beak, which is narrow, 

 slightly compressed, and rugose towards the tip, where it may be slightly bent 

 down, is always shorter than the combined length of the metatarsus and third toe ; 

 the first primary quill of the wing largely exceeds the fourth in length ; and the tail 



is uniformly coloured. In addition 

 to the sanderling, the group coin- 

 prises thirteen species, with certain 

 local varieties, and is confined in 

 the breeding -season to the higher 

 latitudes of the Northern Hemi- 

 sphere, although in winter becoming 

 cosmopolitan. Of the numerous 

 species visiting the British Islands, 

 only the dunlin breeds there, and 

 that but sparingly. Among these 

 the curlew-sandpiper (T. arcuata), 

 demands notice on account of its 

 curved beak; while still more 

 remarkable is the broadly expanded 

 KNOT SANDPIPER. tip of the beak of the spoon-billed 



sandpiper (T. pygmcea), a species 



probably breeding to the northward of Behring Strait, and separated by many 

 writers, as Eurhinorhynclius. The sanderling (Calidris arenaria), easily recog- 

 nised by the absence of the first toe, the black legs, and broad beak, breeds near 

 the coasts of many portions of the Arctic Ocean, although not on the Norwegian 

 and Russian portions, and has been taken as far south as Java. 



Three sandpipers from the Southern Hemisphere, two of which inhabit the 

 Australian region and the other South America, differ from the preceding in the 

 slight inequality in the length of the first four primary quills of the wing, and 

 are thus assigned to a distinct genus, Phegornis. 



The beautiful birds commonly termed painted snipe, of which 

 Painted Snipe. . * 



there are three species inhabiting the warmer regions or both 



hemispheres, are distinguished from the members of the subfamily yet noticed by 

 the difference in length between the shortest and longest primary quill being much 

 less instead of much more than the length of the beak. They resemble the 

 preceding forms, however, in that the length of the beak is much less than twice 

 that of the metatarsus, and in the possession of a pale median line on the crown of 

 the head, and two light stripes down the back, they are like the true snipe. The 

 foot is four- toed, and -a considerable portion of the tibia is bare. 



