612 



SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. —LIMICOLM. 



Young : Mantle ashy-brown, each feather edged with whitish ; wings black, but some of the 

 quills white-tipped, the edge of the wing white, the coverts edged with pale ochre. Tail not 



so pearly gray as in the 

 adults, with some irreg- 

 ular dusky markings. 

 Legs probably different 

 (skins afford no crite- 

 rion). Chick, in down : 

 BUI apparently blackish ; 

 legs pale. Under parts 

 white ; above, prettily mottled with black, brown, and tawny 

 or orange. U. S. generally, lilte the avocet rare eastward, 

 abundant in the west, rather more southerly than the avocet. 

 Nest at the water's-edge or on heaped vegetation just above 

 the surface in shallow water ; eggs 4-, pyriform, 1.60 to 1.85 X 

 I.IS to 1.25 ; greenish-drab or pale brownish-olive to dark 

 Fig 427 — Bla k k d Sflt ochraceous, boldly marked all over with spots and splashes of 

 1 nat. size. (From Sclater.) ' blackish-brown. 



41. Family PHALAROPODID.^ : Pha,laropes. 



This is likewise a small family ; the three species comprising it resemble sandpipers, but 

 are immediately distinguished by the lobate feet ; the toes are furnished with plain or scalloped 

 membranes, like those of coots and grebes, but not so broad. The body is depressed, and the 

 under plumage thick and duck -like to resist water, on which the birds swim with perfect ease 

 and grace. The wings and tall are like those of ordinary sandpipers ; the tarsi are much com- 

 pressed ; there is basal webbing of the toes besides the marginal membrane ; the bill, and some 

 other details of form, differ in each of the three genera. These birds inhabit the northern por- 

 tions of both hemispheres, two of them at least breeding only in boreal regions, but they all 

 wander far southward in winter. There are but three species, one peculiar to America, the 

 others of general distribution. 



Analysis of Genera. 



Membranes plain ; bill very slender, subulate . . . Stegatiopus 226 



Membranes scalloped ; bill very slender, subulate . . ... Lobipes 227 



Membranes scalloped; bill stouter, flattened, with lancet-shaped tip .... . Phalaropus 228 



226. STEGAN'OPUS. (Gr. aTfyav67rovs, steganopous, web-foot.) rRlNGE-POOT Phalakopes. 

 Bin long, equalling the tarsus, exceeding the head, extremely slender, terete and acute. Culmen 

 and gonys broad and depressed. Lateral 

 grooves long and narrow, reaching nearly 

 to tip of bill. Interramal space narrow and 

 very short, extending only half way to end 

 of bill. Nostrils at extreme base of bill. 

 Wings of moderate length. Tail short, 

 deeply doubly-emarginate ; legs greatly 

 elongated ; tibise bare for a considerable 

 distance ; tarsus exceeding middle toe. 

 Toes long and slender, broadly margined 



with an even, unscalloped membrane, united but for a brief space basally. 

 long, arched, and acute. 

 60S. S. wil'soni. (To A.Wilson. Pig. 428.) Wilson's Phalarope. Adult ? , in breeding 

 dress: BiU and feet black. Crown of head pale ash, passing into white along a narrow stripe 



Fig. 428. — Head of Wilson's Plialarope, nat. size, 

 nat. del. E. C.) 



(Ad 



Claws moderately 



