98 SCOLOPACIN^E. 



Tringa macularia, Lath. Inch Ornith. ii. 734. Totanus 

 raacularius, Teram. Man. d'Ornith. ii. 656. Actitis macula- 

 ria, Spotted Weet-weet, MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, iv. 



FAMILY XXXVII. SCOLOPACIN,. SCO- 

 LOPACINE BIRDS, OR SNIPES. 



Although, when viewed collectively, the Scolopacinse 

 present peculiar characters by which they may be dis- 

 tinguished as a family, yet some of them are so closely 

 allied to several of the Tringinse, that, in description, 

 they can scarcely be distinctly separated, so that the 

 limits of the two families cannot be clearly marked. 

 The general characters of the Scolopacinse, however, ap- 

 pear to be the following. They are birds of small size, 

 our Woodcock being among the largest, with the body 

 compact and rather full ; the neck of moderate length ; 

 the head much compressed, and rounded above. The 

 bill is always very long, flexible, straight, slender, com- 

 pressed, toward the end enlarged, depressed, and having 

 numerous nervous filaments under the cuticle, which, on 

 becoming dry, is marked with scrobiculi or small de- 

 pressions ; the tips of both mandibles hard, narrowly 

 obtuse, that of the lower shorter, and received into the 

 upper, so as to offer no impediment to the intrusion of 

 the bill into the mud. This character occurs slightly 

 in some of the Tringinse also. The mouth extremely 

 narrow ; the tongue long, very slender, soft, thin, chan- 

 nelled above, acutely pointed ; the roof of the mouth 

 with a double series of short, pointed, reversed, papillae ; 

 oesophagus narrow ; stomach a roundish, compressed, 

 muscular gizzard, with dense plicate epithelium ; intes- 

 tine of moderate length and width ; coeca rather long. 

 Nostrils very small, linear, basal. Eyes moderate, ge- 

 nerally high on the head. Aperture of ear large, round- 



