SANDPIPER. GRALLATORES. TOTANUS. 67 
its prey by probing the sands and softer ground with its 
bill. Its flesh is delicate and well-flavoured. In disposition 
it is scarcely so shy as the Common Curlew. 
Pate 14. represents the bird in the natural size. 
The bill, which is upwards of three inches in length, is General 
black ; with the base of the under mandible flesh-red. ae ‘ 
Forehead and crown of the head dark hair-brown, di- 
vided longitudinally by a narrow mesial white streak. 
The eye-brows are white, streaked with brown. Be- 
tween the angle of the mouth and the eyes is a patch 
of hair-brown. Chin and throat white; the latter with 
fine hair-brown streaks. Neck and breast greyish-white, 
with the centres of the feathers hair-brown. Upper 
part of the back, scapulars, and wing-coverts glossed 
with hair-brown, margined with greyish-white. Lower 
part of the back white. Upper tail-coverts white, barred 
with dark hair-brown. Tail greyish-brown, with darker 
bars, and the feathers tipped with white. Abdomen 
white. Legs and toes bluish-grey. 
Genus TOTANUS, Becust. SANDPIPER. 
GENERIC CHARACTERS. 
Bit long, 
recurved ; rounded, solid, hard, and drawn to a point. The 
or of mean length: in some species slightly 
upper mandible sulcated ; the furrow seldom extending be- 
yond half the length of the bill; the tip arched, and curving 
over that of the lower one. 'Tomia of both mandibles bend- 
ing inwards progressively towards the point. Nostrils basal, 
lateral, linear, longitudinally cleft in the furrow of the man- 
dible. Legs long, slender, naked above the tarsal joint. Toes 
three before, and one behind. Front toes united at the base 
by a membrane; that connecting the outer with the middle 
E2 
