SCOLOPACIDiE, SNIPE, ETC. 



249 



characteristics of the scolopacine bill. The gape, never ample, is generally very 

 short and narrow, reaching little, if any, beyond the base of the bill. The nostrils 

 are short narrow slits, exposed. The head is completely feathered to the bill 

 (except in one species), at the base of which the ptilosis stops abruptly, without 

 forming projecting antiiE. The wings commonly show the thin pointed contour 

 described under Limicolw, but they are occasionally short and rounded. The tail, 

 always short and soft, has as a rule 12 rectrices ; in one genus, however, there are 

 from 12 to 2G. The crura are rarely feathered to the suffrago. The tarsi are 

 scutellate before and behind, and reticulate on the sides, except in the curlews, 

 where they are scutellate only in front ; they are probably never entirely reticulate 

 (the normal state in plover) . The hallux is absent in only two or three instances ; 

 the anterior toes commonly show one basal web, and often two, but in many species 

 they are entirely cleft. The scolopacine birds are of medium and small size, 

 ranking with plover in this respect ; none attain the average stature of Herodiones. 

 The general economy of these birds is similar to that of plover ; a chief 

 peculiarLtjr being probably their mode of procuring food, by feeling for it, in the 

 majority of cases, in the sand or mud with their delicately sensitive, probe-like bill. 

 ~ The eggs are commonly four, parti-colored, pointed at one end and broad at the 

 other, placed with the small ends together in a slight nest or mere depression on 

 the ground ; the young run about at birth. The sexes, with very rare exceptions, 

 are alike in .color or nearly so, and the ? is usually a little larger than the ^ ; but 

 the sexual distinctions are very rarely strong enough to be perfectly reliable (remark- 

 able exception in gen. 218). Color distinctions with age, likewise, are rarely 

 marked ; but on the contrary, seasonal plumages are, in many cases, as throughout 

 the sandpipers, very strongly indicated, the nuptial dress being entirely, different 

 from that worn the rest of the year. Excepting a few species that frequent dry open 

 places like many plover, these buxls are found by the water's edge where the ground 

 is soft and oozy — in moist thickets, low rank meadows, bogs and marshes, by the 

 riverside, and on the seashore. Some are solitary, but the majority are gregarious 

 when not breeding, and many gather in immense flocks, especially during the 

 extensive migrations that nearly all perform. The voice is a mellow pipe, a sharp 

 bleat, or a harsh scream, according to the species. Few birds surpass the snipe in 

 sapid quality of flesh, and many kinds rank high in the estimation of the sportsman 

 and epicure. The family is cosmopolitan, but the majority inhabit the northern 

 hemisphere, breeding in boreal regions. There are about ninety well-determined 

 species of scolopacine birds, referable perhaps to fifteen tenable genera, although 

 man}'' more than this are often employed. Various attempts to divide the group into 

 sub-families have met with little success, owing to the close iutergradation of the 

 several types. All the leading forms of the family, with most of the lesser genera, 

 are represented in this cquntrj', and are indicated by the specific descriptions given 

 beyond ; while its entire composition may be pointed out and rendered perfectly 

 intelligible by a brief summary : — 



a. In tvoodcocJc (gen. 201-2) and true snipe (203) the ear appears below and 

 not behind the eye, which is placed far back and high up ; and if the brain be 

 examined, it will be found curiously tilted over so that its anatomical base looks 

 forward. The bill is perfectly straight and much longer than the head, deep-grooved 

 to the very end, which is either knobbed, or widened just behind the tip, where 

 there is a furrow in the flattened culmen. The membranous covering is abundantly 

 supplied with nerves ; this organ constitutes a probe of delicate sensibility, an 

 eflacient instrument of touch, used to feel for food below the surface of the ground. 



KEY TO N. A. BIRDS. 32 



