596 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS —LIMICOLJE. 



brown, aud bull'. Primaries fuscous, spotted with liglit brown on outer webs; secondaries 

 similar, but the marldugs becoming bars on both webs. Tail-feathers brownish-black, mucli 

 varied witli shaft-lines, cross-bars, and edgings of buff; crissum immaculate, like the abdomen. 

 Bill dark ; feet pale ; iris dark brown. Length about 7.00 ; wing 3.75 ; tail 1.75 ; tarsus 1.00 ; 

 middle toe and claw rather more. Europe, Asia, etc., recently imported and turned loose in 

 CI >nsid(n'able numbers in th(i U. S., as in New England ; but its permanent naturalization is 

 stili open to question. If one will compare this bird with the bob-white he will see how very 

 different is the Old World quaU from our Ortyx, or any other birds of this country called 

 '' quail ; " but that it resembles Ortyx more nearly than the European partridge, Perdix cinerea, 

 does ; so that, if we must boiTow a name from any Old World birds for our species of Ortyx, 

 Lophortyx, Callipejyla, etc., the term ' quail' is rather more appropriate than ' partridge.' 



VII. Order LIMICOLiB : Shore-birds. 



Commonly known as the great " plover-snipe group," from the circumstance that the 

 pluvialine and scolopacine birds form the bulk of the order, which is practically equivalent to 

 the Cliaradriomorpha of Huxley. The species average of small size, with rounded or de- 

 pressed (never extremely compressed) body, and hve in open places on the ground, usually by 

 the water's edge. With rare exceptions, the head is completely feathered ; the general ptery- 

 losis is of a nearly uniform pattern. The osteological characters are shared to some extent by 

 certain swinmiing birds, as GuUs and Auks ; tlie palate is schizognathous ; the nasal bones are 

 nonnally schizorhinal : the angle of the mandible is produced into a slender hooked process ; 

 t!i(> maxiUo-palatines are thin and scroll-like ; there are pr(5minent basipterygoid processes ■ 

 the rostral bones are slender, often much elongated ; the sternum is usually doubly, sometimes 

 singly, notched behind ; the carotids are double ; the syringeal muscles not more than one pair. 

 The physiological nature is prjecocial and ptiloptedic ; the eggs, averaging fcjur, as a rule are 

 laid ou the ground in a rude nest or bare depression ; the young hatch clothed and able to run 

 about. The food is insects, worms, and other small or soft animals, either picked up from the 

 surface, or probed for in soft sand or rjiud, or forced to rise by stamping with the feet on the 

 ground; from this latter circumstance, the birds have been named Calcatores (stampers). 

 With a few exceptions, the wing is long, thin, flat and pointed, with narrow stiff primaries, 

 rapidly graduated from 1st to 10th ; secondaries in turn rapidly lengthening from without 

 inward, the posterior border of the wing thus showing two salient points separated by a deep 

 emargination. The tail, never long, is commonly quite short, and has from 12 (the usual 

 number) up to 20 or even 26 feathers (in one remarkable group of Snipe). The legs are 

 commonly lengthened, sometimes extremely so ; rarely quite short, and are usually slender ; 

 they are indifferently scutellate or reticulate, or both. The feathers rarely reach the suffrage). 

 The toes are short (as compared with the case of Herons and Rails), the anterior usually semi- 

 palmate, frequently cleft to the base, only pialmate in Securvirostra and only lobate in Phalaro- 

 podidcE. The hinder is always short and elevated, or absent. The length of the phalanges 

 of the anterior toes decreases from the basal to the penultimate. The lower part of the crus 

 never has feathers inserted upon it, though the leg may appear feathered to the suftrago, 

 owing to the length of the feathers. The bill varies much in length aud contour, but is almost 

 always slender, contracted from the frontal region of the skull, and is as long as, or nrach longer 

 than, the head, representing the " pressirostral " (pluvialine) and " longirostral " (scolopacine) 

 types. Furthermore, it is generally in large part, if not entirely, covered with sottish skin, 

 often membranous and sensitive to the very ti)i, and only rarely hard throughout. The nostril 

 is generally a slit in the membranous part, and probably never feathered. 



Most of the families of this order are well represented in this country, and will bo found 

 fully characterized beyond. The position of Parridec is in question, and it probably belongs here 

 rather than among the families where it is ranged (bey(uiil). There are several outlying or 



