310 



PR^COCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOL.E. 



The Spoon-billed Sandpiper is said to frequent the mud-flats at the mouths of 

 rivers and the sands of the sea-shore, where, in company with various species of 

 Trlnga', it procures from the surface of the water au abundant harvest of such food 

 as is always left by a receding tide. Of its nidification nothing is as yet known. 



Gexus NUMENIUS, Bkissox. 

 Numcnius, Bpjss. Orn. Y. 1760, 311 (type, Scolopax arquata, Linx.). 



Char. Legs covered anteriorly with transverse scutellfe, laterally and behind with small hexag- 

 onal scales. Bill very long, exceeding the tibia, and curved downward for the terminal half; 

 the culuien rounded. Tip of bill expanded laterally and club-shaped. Grooves of bill not reaching 

 beyond the middle. Tertials as long as primaries. 



Bill variable in length, always longer than tarsus, sometimes exceeding tarsus and toes. It is 

 nearly straight at the base, then decurving quite rapidly to the tip, where the upper mandible is 

 thickened downward beyond and over the lower. Lateral grooves occupying only the liasal half 

 or third of the bill ; under mandible not grooved beneath. Cleft of mouth extending but little 



N. longirostris. 



beyond the base of eulmen. Feathers of head extending about the same distance on both man- 

 diljles ; those of chin to oppoisite the anterior extremity of the nostrils. Tarsi nearly twice as long 

 as middle toe, rather more than twice the bare part of tibia ; covered behind by hexagonal scales 

 larger than the lateral ones. Outer toe webbed for its basal joint ; inner for half this distance 

 Tail short, nearly even, not quite half the wings. Tertials as long as the primaries. 



Of the genus Numenuis several species are found in North America, none of them occurring 

 regularly in the OLl World, as is the case with so many of the Triwjem. 



American Species. 

 A. Thighs not bristled. 



a. Rum-p not vhite. 



1. N. longirostris. Wing, 10.00-12.00 ; culmeu, 3.80-8.50 ; tarsus, 2.2.5-3.50 : middle toe, 



1.30-1.55. Lower parts pale cinnamon ; axillars deep cinnamon, without flistinct bars; 



crown uniformly streaked, without median stripe. Hab. Temjserate North America, 



south to Guatemala, Cuba, Jamaica, and Brazil (?). 



