616 



SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — LIMIC0L2E. 



surface of the ground. In»the dried state, the soft skin shrinks tight like parchment to the 

 bone, and becomes studded with small pits. The gape of the mouth is extremely short and 

 narrow ; the toes are cleft ; the legs, neck, and vnugs are comparatively short, and the body is 

 rather full. There are uo obvious seasonal or sexual differences in plumage. Not completely 

 gregarious ; no such flights of woodcock and true snipe occur as are usually witnessed among 

 sandpipers and bay-snipe ; they inhabit the bog and brake rather than the open waterside : 

 they cannot be treacherously massacred by scores, like some of their relatives ; they are know- 

 ing birds, if their brains are upset, and their successful pursuit calls into action all the better 

 qualities of the true sportsman. There is but one species of PMlohela ; two or three of 

 Scolopax, and about twenty of Gallinago. The curious circumstance occurs, among the 

 latter, that the tail-feathers range from 12 to 36 in different species; and in those with the 

 higher numbers, several pairs are narrow and linear — a character upon which the genus 



Fig. 432. — American Woodcock, about f nat. size. {From American Field.) 



Spilura rests. — The singular genus Ithynchcea, with two species, M. capensis (Africa) 

 and B,. semicoUaris (S. America), may belong here. — Macrorhamphiis, containing only our 

 species, and one other, M. setnipalmatus of the Old World, has a bill exactly as in Gallinago, 

 but is distinguished by more pointed wings, and differently proportioned legs, with basal web- 

 bing of the toes. It stands exactly between the true snipe and 



b. The Oodwits (Limosa), in which we find the same very long, wholly grooved, and 

 extremely sensitive l)ill, which, however, is not dilated at the end, nor furrowed on the culmen, 

 and is bent slighily upward ; the gape, as before, is exceedingly constricted. The toes show 

 a basal web. These are rather large birds, with the colors and general aspect of curlews, 

 but the bill is not deourved and the tarsi are scutellate behind. They fi-equent marshes, bays 

 and estuaries, and are among the miscellaneous assortment of birds that are collectively 

 designated "bay-snipe." There are only five or six species, of the single genus Limosa. 



