242 THE GAME BIEDS AND WILD FOWL 



Subfamily SCOLOPACIN>E.— The Cleft-footed Sandpipers 



and Snipes. 



The Cleft-footed Sandpipers and Snipes may be distinguished from other 

 members of the Chaeadeiid^ by having the toes cleft to the base, without any 

 webbing between them. The nasal groove, as in the preceding subfamily, extends 

 along the greater part of the upper mandible. The metatarsus is scutellated in 

 front and behind. Dr. Sharpe recognises no less than nineteen genera, eleven of 

 which contain one species only ; whilst Seebohm admitted but four genera, if we 

 exclude the Turnstones. Certainly not more than a dozen appear to be necessary 

 for all that systematists actually require. 



Qenus TRINQA, or Typical Sandpipers. 



Type, TKINGA CANUTUS. 



Tringa, of Linnaeus (1766). — The birds comprising the present genus are 

 characterised by having the culmen longer than the tarsus and the eye situated 

 well in front of the auricular orifice. The metatarsus is rather short, the tibia 

 just above the joint devoid of feathers. The bill is sometimes decurved, narrow, 

 slightly compressed and rugose towards the tip. The nostrils are lateral and 

 situated in a groove. Toes, three in front ; one behind, small and elevated. 



This genus is composed of eight species and subspecies, confined during the 

 breeding season to the northern parts of the Palsearctic and Nearctic regions, but 

 at other times distributed more widely and then reaching the Intertropical or 

 Primogaean zone. Five species are British, but one only breeds within our area. 



The typical Sandpipers are dwellers on tundras, marshes, the banks of streams, 

 and in winter on the sea-coasts. They are birds of rapid flight and extended 

 migration, run and walk with ease, and frequently wade. Their notes are clear 

 and shrill, some of them not unmusical. They subsist on insects, worms 

 crustaceans, mollusks, and ground fruits, etc. They make scanty nests on the 

 ground, and the four eggs are pyriform in shape and spotted. They are mono- 

 gamous, gregarious in winter, more or less social during the breeding season, 



