SCOLOPACIDJE : TATTLERS. 643 



black. This curious tracery, best seen from below, is diagnostic; though the precise pat- 

 tern varies interminably. The patch of under coverts at the bases of the primaries have 

 the same character. Axillars white ; lining of wing.s white or rufescent. Iris brown. 

 Bill brownish-black; legs greenish or yellowisli. Length 7-50-8. 25 ; extent about 16.00; 

 wing 5.00-5.25; tail 2.50; bill along culmen 0.67-0.75, along gape 1.00; tarsus 1.20; 

 oiddle toe and claw under 1.00. Fall plumage : Under parts less rufescent, frequently simply 

 ,awny- whitish; and the broad ochrey or tawny edgings of the feathers of the upper parts 

 replaced by narrow whitish streakings, in a set of semicircles. Wings and tail as in spring. 

 N. Am. at large, and a frequent European straggler, but apparently nowhere abundant; 

 migratory in tlie U. S. ; S. in winter through S. Aur. ; breeds in high latitudes. Eggs usually 

 4, pointedly pyrifonn, 1.40 to 1.50 X 1-02 to 1.10; the ground clay, sometimes slightly oliva- 

 ceous, often quite grayish ; markings extremely bold and sharp, in heavy blotches and indeter- 

 minate spots all over the eggs, but largest and most numerous at the greater eud; colors rich 

 umber-brown, of varying shade. Nearest these blotched sauiples are the splashed ones, with 

 markings massed at greater end, elsewhere splattered in small pattern. Others are sijotted with 

 narrow markings radiating from the large end, almost wreathing about the greatest diameter. 

 All with the usual neutral-tint shell-markings; most with scratchy blackish marks ijver all. 



250. HETERO'SCELUS. (Gr. ?repof, Zieteros, different, otherwise ; o-KeXos, s/ceZos, leg.) Short- 

 legged Tattler. Bill totaniue, longer than head or tarsus, straight, rather stout, much com- 

 pressed, both mandibles grooved for about two-thirds theu' length, with inflected tomia beyond. 

 Gape of mouth extending beyond base of column ; feathers of equal extent on sides of both 

 mandibles, those of chin reaching much farther. Wings long, pointed, folding about to end of 

 tail ; 1st and 2d quills subequal and hjngest. Tail short, less than half the wing, nearly even. 

 Legs short, somewhat rugous, reticulate except on front of tarsus, where imperfectly or incom- 

 pletely scutellate ; tibiae denuded for a space about half as long as tarsus ; tarsus longer than 

 middle toe and claw, shorter than bill; outer longer than inner lateral toe ; a large basal web 

 between outer and middle, a rudimentary one between middle and iuner ; bind toe long, about 

 equalling 1st joint of iuner toe. One species, remarkable for the cliaracter of tarsal envelope 

 and perfect uniformity of color of upper parts. 



643o H. iaca'nus. (Lat. incanus, quite gray.j Wandering Tattler. Upper parts perfectly 

 uniform dark plumbeous, or slaty-gray, including the wholly unmarked tail, wing-coverts, and 

 inner quUls, the longer quills gradually blackening, the shaft of the first primary nearly all 

 white ; a white line over eye. Lining of wings, axillars, and sides of body colored like the back, 

 but varied with white. Under parts in general white ; in one plumage without markings, but 

 heavily shaded on neck, breast, and sides with the color of the back ; in another, heavily 

 marked with blackish-plumbeous — speckled on throat, streaked on neck, wavy-barred on breast, 

 sides, and crissum. Bill black, apparently pale at base of under mandible. Len<;tii ab(.ut 

 10.00; wing 6.50; tail 3.00; bill 1.50; tarsus 1.25; mid- 

 dle toe and claw a little less. A species of almost universal 

 distribution on the coast and islands of the Pacific, com- 

 mon in summer on the shores of Alaska ; described under 

 at least twelve different names. 



25 1 . NUME'NIUS. (Gr. j/eor, neos, new ; /iiyi/i;, mene, the 

 moon: the long curved bill, like a crescent. Fig. 450.) 

 Curlews. Bill of very variable length, always longer 

 than head, probably always exceeding the tarsus, some- 

 times more than length of entire leg; slender, curved Fig. 450. -Long-billed'cI^leTt^atly 

 downward, the tip of the upper mandible knobbed and reduced. 



overhanging the end of the lower; obsoletely grooved nearly to end. Gape of mouth 

 extended beyond base of culmen. Feathers reaching about equally far on sides of each man- 



