SPECIES OF THE GENUS NUMENIUS. 189 
Scolopacide having a very long decurved bill, and having the 
tarsus scutellated in front, and reticulated behind. 
This diagnosis is extremely satisfactory, with one exception. 
It excludes Nwmenius minor from the genus. This species has 
the whole of the tarsus unmistakably scutellated, both in front 
and at the back, and is in every respect a Totanus, except, 
perhaps, that no species of Totanus has the bill quite so much 
decurved. The difference in the amount of curvature of bill 
between Numenius minor and N. pheopus is, however, greater 
than that between N. minor and Totanus bartrami. Those 
ornithologists who are still wedded to the rostral system may, if 
if they like, accept the following diagnosis of the genus 
Numenius :— 
Scolopacide having the arch of the bill sufficiently great 
that a straight line, drawn from the gape to the point where the 
two mandibles meet at the tip, will pass below the lower outline 
of the under mandible; and (to exclude Ilidorhynchus), having 
the lower half of the tarsus scutellated in front. 
The student may inquire why, if the so-called structural 
characters are so unsatisfactory, do you not settle the matter by 
appeal to the colour-test ? Because colour, and more particularly 
pattern of colour, dates much too far back to distinguish such 
closely-allied genera as Numenius and Totanus. The ouly 
important point in which Numenius borealis, N. minor, and 
Totanus bartrami differ in colour, or pattern of colour, is that 
the latter species has barred primaries, but unfortunately 
T. bartrami is the only Totanus that has barred primaries, and 
N. borealis and N. minor are the only species in the genus 
Numenius that have plain primaries. 
This is clearly a case for the anatomist to decide, but in the 
meantime a wise conservatism may allow the two species to 
remain in the genera in which the instinct of ornithologists has 
already placed them. 
The genus Numenius, like Totanus and Charadrius, may be 
in a transition state as regards the scutellation of the tarsus. 
Numenius minor and N. borealis are so nearly allied that it is 
difficult at once to find a perfectly satisfactory character upon 
which to separate them, but, though it is a remarkable fact that 
the back of the tarsus of the former is distinctly scutellated, 
whilst that of the latter is as clearly reticulated, the fact is not 
