256 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
Falcinellus cuvieri Bonaparte, Geog. and Comp. List, 1838, 50 (new name for 
Scolopax pygmexus Linneeus). 
Pelidna arquata Breum, Vogelf., 1855, 316 (n. e. Africa, rarely to 8. e. Europe). 
Genus PELIDNA Cuvier. 
Pelidna Cuvier, Régne Anim., i, 1817, 490. (Type, as designated by Gray, 
1840, Tringa cinclus Linneus=T. alpina Linneus.) 
Scheniclus Gray, List Birds Brit. Mus., iii, 1844, 104 (ex Moehring, 1752). 
(Type, Tringa cinclus Linneus=T. alpina Linneus.) 
Medium-sized Eroliine (wing 103-126 mm.) with bill longer than 
tarsus, faintly decurved terminally, compressed, the tip not dilated; 
tarsus longer than middle toe with claw, and tail slightly emarginate 
(but middle pair of rectrices projecting and pointed). (Closely 
resembling Erolia, but tarsus and bill relatively shorter, the latter 
not distinctly decurved; lateral membrane of anterior toes much less 
developed; tail emarginate instead of truncate, the middle pair of 
retrices more pointed, and coloration very different.) 
Bill longer than tarsus, decidedly less than one-third as long as 
wing, compressed, tapering and very faintly decurved distally, its 
depth at base equal to about one-fifth the length of exposed culmen 
and nearly twice its width at same point; nasal groove broad, taper- 
ing anteriorly, the extreme anterior, very narrow, portion extending 
nearly to tip of bill; mandible also with a narrow lateral groove; 
nostril subbasal, small, narrowly elliptical, longitudinal; edge of 
loral feathering advancing farther forward than that of forehead, 
which forms a rather deep concavity at base of culmen; malar antia 
decidedly anterior to loral antia, the mental antia still more anterior 
(nearly on vertical line with posterior end of nostril). Wing rather 
long, pointed, the longest primary (outermost) exceeding distal 
secondaries by decidedly more than half the length of wing; longest, 
almost lanceolate, tertials falling decidedly short of tip of longest 
primary. Tail more than two-fifths as long as wing, slightly emargi- 
nate, the middle pair of retrices projecting decidedly beyond the 
rest (longer even than lateral rectrices) and acuminate or sub- 
acuminate. Tarsus shorter than exposed culmen, nearly one-fourth 
as long as wing, continuously scutellate anteriorly and posteriorly; 
bare portion of tibia about as long as first two phalanges of middle 
toe, also scutellate before and behind; middle toe, without claw, 
about three-fourths as long as tarsus; lateral toes decidedly shorter 
than middle toe, the inner very slighty shorter than the outer; no 
web between bases of anterior toes. 
Coloration.—In summer, pileum, back, and scapulars brown or rusty 
broadly streaked or longitudinally spotted with black; under parts 
mostly white, with a large area of blackish on breast and sides of 
abdomen, the chest and foreneck streaked with blackish. In winter 
nearly plain brownish gray above and without black on under parts. 
