BIRDS — SCOLOPACIDAE — PALUDICOLAE. 



745 



* Sp, Ch. — Much smaller than either of the preceding, but resembling N. hudsonicus ia color. Bill rather longer than the 

 head, slender ; wings long; tail short; legs mo lerate. Entire upper parts brownish black, spotted with dull yellowish rufous ; 

 quills brownish black, uniform on both webs, without bars on either ; under wing coverts and axillaries light rufous, with 

 transverse stripes of brownish black. Under parts dull white, tinged with rufous, with longitudinal narrow stripes of brownish 

 black on the neck and breast, and transverse stripes of the same on the sides and under tail coverts ; tail ashy brown, with 

 transverse bands of brownish black; bill brownish black; base of under mandible yellow; legs greenish brown. Total length 

 about 13J inches; wing, 8^; tail, 3; bill, 2^ to SJ; tarsus l| inches. 

 Mob. — Eastern and northern North America. 



This small and interesting curlew is merely a bird of passage in the United States, to be met 

 with in the spring and autumn. It is easily distinguished from either of the preceding by its 

 small size and its comparatively short and weak bill. We have never seen it from the western 

 countries of the United States. 



List of specimens. 



Tribe PALUDICOLAE. 



Ch. — Species living in marshes, with elevated bodies, much compressed laterally ; usually with longur necks than most snipe, 

 with moderately long, strong, and stout bills also much compressed and covered at tip by a horny investment ; the remaining 

 portion membranous, with elongated nasal furrow, and narrow, more or less perforate, nostrils. The lores are feathered 

 uniformly as in the Limicolae ; the rest of the plumage without the spotting of the snipes. Wings rather short, more rounded 

 than pointed, and when folded do not reach beyond the short, soft and feeble tail ; in fact, seldom to its base. The outer two 

 or three primaries generally abbreviated. The toes are very long, cleft to the base, thin, and generally with very long claws ; 

 the same is the case with the hind toe, which is not only much longer than in the Limicolae, but is generally inserted more 

 nearly on the same level with the anterior ones, touching the ground for most of its extent. 



The species pick up their food on the surface, and do not probe the soft mud in search of it. 



The North American species of this tribe are few in number, though vfery abundant in 

 individuals. Their habit of close concealment among the reeds and grass of marshy places, 

 renders them very difficult of detection, except when their abodes are more or less submerged. 



The Paludicolae, or Alectorides, are divided by Bonaparte into four families, Palamedeidae, 

 Farridae, Ballidae, and Ocydromidae. Of these the Ballidae only are represented within the 

 limits of the United States. Of Bonaparte's two sub-families, Prosohoninae and BalUnae, the 

 former with a single species, Prosobonia leucoptera, {Tringa leucoptera, Gmelin,) of the Pacific 

 islands, is, by Gray, referred to Totaneae. The BalUnae thus remaining may be sub-divided 

 into the following sections and genera : 

 Angnst 12, 1858. 



94 b 



