53'2 CLASS AVES. 



Spoonbill of Latham, and Phalaeopus (Tringa Lobata), 

 present nothing worthy of notice. The same may be said 

 of Strepsilas. 



Under the division Totanus of the text, are compre- 

 hended many species, formerly disseminated through the 

 f!;enera. Scolopax and Tringa of Linnaeus. They have received 

 in French the denomination of Chevaliers, because, according 

 to Belon, their body, mounted on such long legs, appears 

 as if on horseback. These birds, many of which enter into 

 the water up to the knees, but without swimming, live on the 

 sea-shore, on the banks of lakes and ponds, and inlow andhumid 

 meadows, where they subsist on small worms, and, in default 

 of them, on terrestrial insects, flies, &c. ; but rarely on the 

 spawn of fish. They construct their nest on the ground, in . 

 the grass, &c., and the young ones soon quit it. During the 

 season of reproduction, they are found in pairs ; but most 

 generally form, in Autumn, small flocks, which migrate, and 

 do not separate until Spring. Though subject to a double 

 moulting, their winter does not differ from their summer 

 plumage, except in the distribution of spots and stripes, and 

 the males are of the same size as the females. Their flesh is 

 usually tender and well-tasted. 



What we have now said generally, as to habits, is appli- 

 cable to all the species. Passing over Lobipes as affording 

 nothing worthy of notice here, we proceed to Himantopus. 



The bird which serves as the type of this subdivision, was 

 named Himantopus by Pliny, which signifies cord-like formed 

 feet, on account of the weakness of its legs, and by M. de Lace- 

 •pedieMacrotarsus^ow account of their exceeding length ; in the 

 systems of Linnaeus and Latham it is a plover, and we have 

 figured the European species under the nameof the long-legged 

 plover. If the privation of thumb did not exclude it from the 

 family of totanus, this bird would seem more nearly related 

 to that family, in the length of legs and the form and tenuity 

 of bill, than to the plovers. It would be the same with the 



