SYNOPSIS OF ORDERS AND FAMILIES. 
AMERICAN COOT. 
Family 23. RAILS, COOTS, AND GALLINULES. RALLIDA, 
Bill variable; toes always long, webbed (lobed) in only one species; wings short and 
rounded; tail short. 
OrDER IX. Snipes, SANDPIPERS, CURLEWS, PLOVERS, ETc. 
LIMICOL. 
(7 families, 55 species, 4 subspecies.) 
Generally long-legged, slender-billed birds of shores and mud flats, 
and sometimes fields. Most of them are under a foot in length; none 
are so large as the Ibises; wings long and pointed; tail short; toes long 
and slender, usually without webs; color generally brown or blackish 
above, mottled and streaked with whitish and buff. Many species 
utter characteristic piping whistles as they fly or when they take wing. 
NORTHERN PHALAROPE. 
Family 24. PHALAROPES. PHALAROPODIDA. 
Front toes with lobes or webs; tarsus flattened; plumage thick; swimming Snipe. 
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