28 BULLETIN 5 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Key North Amer. Birds, ed. 2, 1884, 867.— Stejneger, Stand. Nat. Hist., iv, 



1885, 127, In text. — ^Ameeican OENrrHOLOoiSTS' Union, Check-list, 1886, 



139; ed. 3, 1910, 101.— Shabpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxlii, 1894, xii, 236; 



Hand-list, i, 1899, xvii, 180. — Salvin and Godman, Biol. Centr.-Amer.. Aves. 



iii, 1903, 332. 

 =Araminae Bonaparte, Consp. Gen. Av., ii, 1857 [1854], 103. — Ftjebbinger, 



Unters. Morph. Syst. Vog., ii, 1888, 1566.— Gadow, Bronn's Thier Reich, 



Vog, ii, 1891, 184. 

 =Aramin!e Knowlton, Birds of World, 1909, 336. 

 =Arami Shabpe, Rev. Bee. Att. Classif. Birds, 1891, 74; Hand-list, i, 1899, 



•svii, 180. 



Medium-sized, long-necked and long-legged Grues with the hallux 

 well developed (nearly as long as basal phalanx of middle toe) and 

 incumbent; middle toe at least two-thirds as long as tarsus; bill 

 greatly elongated, not shorter than tarsus; head completely feath- 

 ered; rectrices (12) well developed, firm, and femorocaudal muscle 

 absent; wing diastataxic (aquintocubital). 



The Aramidae are intermediate in structural characters between 

 the Gruidae and Rallidae, agreeing best (indeed almost entirely) 

 with the former in osteological characters and pterylosis, but more 

 like the latter in their digestive organs, external characters (includ- 

 ing the well-developed, incumbent hallux, completely feathered head, 

 and form of wings) , general habits, and nidification. 



Thfe family is peculiar to Tropical America, where represented 

 by a single genus containing only one species. 



The limpkins inhabit swamps, both wooded and open, where their 

 gait while walking, accompanied by a jerking or flirting of the 

 elevated tail, is precisely that of the larger rails {Rallua). The 

 nest is built among reeds, rushes, or other aquatic vegetation, and 

 the numerous (10-12) eggs are in shape and coloration very similar 

 to those of the larger rails. Owing to their loud, wailing cries 

 (uttered mostly at night), they are known to the people of the coun- 

 tries they inhabit by such names as "crazy widow" and "crying 

 bird," etc., while in Florida the northern race is known as the "limp- 

 kin," in allusion, it is said, to its peculiar gait. 



Genus ARAMUS Vieillot 



Aramus Vieillot, Analyse, 1816, 58. (Type, by monotypy, "Courlini BufE."= 



Ardea scolopacea Gmelin.) 

 Notherodius Wagler, Syst. Av., 1827 [147]. (New name for Aramus Vieillot.) 



Bill elongated (about twice as long as head, nearly as long as 

 tarsus) , compressed, its depth at base nearly twice its width at same 

 point ; culmen straight for basal two-thirds or more, then gently but 

 decidedly decurved to tip, the ^° the mesorhinium broad and flattened ; 



"The tip of the bill is frequently turned slightly to one side (usually to the 

 right). 



