BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA. 441 
Latham, Synopsis, iii, pt. i, 296)—Laruam, Index Orn., ii, 1790, 787.— 
Turton, Syst. Nat., i, 1806, 419. 
Recurvirostra alba Viertot, Nouv. Dict. d’Hist. Nat., iii, 1816, 247 (Hudson 
Bay). 
Recurvirostra occidentalis Vicors, Zool. Journ., iv, 1829, 356 (San Francisco, 
California=adult, winter plumage); Zool. Voy. ‘Blossom,’ Birds, 1839, 
28, pl. 12 (San Francisco).—Wacter, Isis, 1831, 522 (Mexico).—Gray, Gen. 
Birds, iii, 1847, pl. 155.—Rercuensacg, Grallatores, 1851, pl. 288, figs. 2364, 
2365.—Batrp, in Rep. Stansbury’s Survey Great Salt Lake, 1852, 326, 334 
(San Francisco, California; New Mexico).—Cassin, Illustr. Birds Calif., 
Texas, etc., 1855, 232, pl. 40—Bonararts, Compt. Rend., xliii, 1856, 
421.—Hartiaus, Journ. fiir Orn., 1858, 450 (California). 
Rlecurvirostra] occidentalis GamBzEL, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 2d ser., i, 1849, 
224 (California). 
Genus HIMANTOPUS Brisson. 
Himantopus Brisson, Orn., v, 1760, 33. (Type, by tautonymy, [Himantopus] 
himantopus Brisson=Charadrius himantopus Linnzeus.) 
Macrotarsus Lackekps, Tabl. Oiseaux, 1799, 18. (Type, Charadrius himan- 
topus Linneeus.) 
Hypsibates Nirzscu, in Ersch und Gruber’s Encycl., xvi, 1827, 150. (Type, 
Charadrius himantopus Linneeus.) 
Rather large Recurvirostride (wing about 200-230 mm.) with 
excessively long, slender legs, slender, straight or very faintly re- 
curved terete bill, no hallux, and with anterior toes cleft nearly to 
base. 
Bill about one-third as long as wing (much more than half as long 
as tarsus), slender, terete, deeper than wide distally, straight or with 
distal half very faintly upturned; nostril sub-basal, linear, in a dis- 
tinct groove extending about one-half the length of maxilla. Neck 
rather long, slender. Wing long and pointed, the longest primary 
(outermost) extending much beyond tips of longest tertials. Tarsus 
about half as long as wing, slender, compressed, covered with small, 
more or less hexagonal scales, those in front larger and more longi- 
tudinal; middle toe, without claw, a little less than one-third as 
long as tarsus, the lateral toes decidedly shorter, the inner decidedly 
shorter than outer; anterior toes cleft nearly to the base, but a per- 
ceptible web between outer and middle toes (extending about as 
far as middle of first phalanges); bare portion of tibia about two- 
thirds as long as tarsus, the lower portion reticulate, like tarsus, the 
upper portion smooth; hallux absent. 
Plumage and coloration.—Plumage of head, neck and under parts 
dense, gull-like. Coloration white and glossy black in males (the 
black more sooty in females), some forms entirely black; legs and 
feet pinkish red. 
Range.—Temperate portions of both hemispheres. (About seven 
species, of which two are American and one peculiar to the Hawaiian 
Islands.) 
