250. 
64%. 
251. 
_than head, probably always exceeding the tarsus, some- 
i 
SCOLOPACIDE: TATTLERS. 643 
black. This curious tracery, best seen from below, is diagnostic; though the precise pat- 
tern varies interminably. The patch of under coverts at the bases of the primaries have 
the same character. Axillars white ; lining of wings white or rufescent. Iris brown. 
Bill brownish-black; legs greenish or yellowish. Length 7.50-8.25; extent about 16.00; 
wing 5.00-5.25; tail 2.50; bill along culmen 0.67-0.75, along gape 1.00; tarsus 1.20; 
riddle toe and claw under 1.00. Fall plumage: Under parts less rufescent, frequently simply 
vawny-whitish; and the broad ochrey or tawny edgings of the feathers of the upper parts 
replaced by narrow whitish streakings, in a set of semicircles. Wings and tail as in spring, 
N. Am. at large, and a frequent European straggler, but apparently nowhere abundant; 
migratory in the U. 8.; 8. in winter through 8. Am.; breeds in high latitudes. Eggs usually 
4, pointedly pyrifurm, 1.40 to 1.50 X 1.02 to 1.10; the ground clay, sometimes slightly oliva- 
ceous, often quite grayish ; markings extremely bold and sharp, in heavy blotches and indeter- 
minate spots all over the eggs, but largest and most numerous at the greater end; colors rich 
umber-brown, of varying shade. Nearest these blotched samples are the splashed ones, with 
markings massed at greater end, elsewhere splattered in small pattern. Others are spotted with 
-narrow markings radiating from the large end, almost wreathing about the greatest diameter. 
All with the usual neutral-tint shell- markings ; most with scratchy blackish marks over all. 
HETERO'SCELUS. (Gr. érepos, heteros, different, otherwise; oxéAos, skelos, leg.) SHORT- 
LEGGED TaTTLER. Bill totanine, longer than head or tarsus, strait, rather stout, much com- 
pressed, both mandibles grooved for about two-thirds their length, with inflected tomia beyond. 
Gape of mouth extending beyond base of colunm ; feathers of equal extent on sides of both 
mandibles, those of chin reaching much farther. Wings long, pointed, folding about to end of 
tail; Ist and 2d quills subequal and longest. Tail short, less than half the wing, nearly even. 
Legs short, somewhat rugous, reticulate except on front of tarsus, where imperfectly or incom- 
pletely scutellate ; tibize denuded for a space about half as long as tarsus; tarsus longer than 
middle toe and claw, shorter than bill; outer longer than inner lateral toe; a large basal web 
between outer and middle, a rudimentary one between middle and inner; bind toe,long, about 
equalling lst joint of inner toe. One species, remarkable for the character of tarsal envelope 
and perfect uniformity of color of upper parts. 
H. inca/nus. (Lat. incanus, quite gray.) WANDERING TATTLER. Upper parts perfectly 
uniform dark plumbeous, or slaty-gray, including the wholly unmarked tail, wing-coverts, and 
inner quills, the longer quills gradually blackening, the shaft of the first primary nearly all 
white ; a white line over eye. Lining of wings, axillars, and sides of body colored like the back, 
but varied with white. Under parts in general white; in one plumage without markings, but 
heavily shaded on neck, breast, and sides with the color of the back; in another, heavily 
marked with blackish-plumbeous — speckled on throat, streaked on neck, wavy-barred on breast, 
sides,. and crissum. Bill black, apparently pale at base of under mandible. Length about 
10.00; wing 6.50; tail 8.00; bill 1.50; tarsus 1.25; mid- 
dle toe and claw a little less. A species of almost universal 
distribution on the coast and islands of the Pacific, com- 
mon in summer on the shores of Alaska; described under 
at least twelve different names. 
NUMENIUS. (Gr. véos, neos, new; pyr, mene, the 
moon: the long curved bill, like a crescent. Fig. 450.) 
Curtews. Bill of very variable length, always longer 
times more than length of entire leg; slender, curved — wye, 450. —Long-billed Curlew, greatly 
downward, the tip of the upper mandible knobbed and reduced. 
overhanging the end of the lower; obsoletely grooved nearly to end. Gape of mouth 
extended beyond base of culmen. Feathers reaching about equally far on sides of each man- 
