350 



TOTANUS. 



The second group contains the species comprised in the subgenera Machetes, Tringoides, 

 and Bartramia, none of which possess either of the characters which have been pointed 

 out as possessed by the species contained in the first group. 



pugnax. 



melanoleuCUS • ■ ^ Bill 2 inches or more in length. 



Wing under 6 inches 



flavipes- ■ 

 glareola • 

 ochropus 

 solitarius ■ 

 terekius • 

 hypolencus 

 macularius 

 bartrami ■ 



y Central upper tail-coverts white, 

 with or without narrow bars. 



J 



I Axillaries brown, narrowly 



I barred with white. 



J 



J 



i Eighth and ninth secondaries 

 mostly white. 



Outer tail-feathers at least a 

 sixth shorter than the 

 longest. 



J 



These characters are also all unaffected by age, sex, or season. 



The two groups are very closely connected with each other. The almost white 

 secondaries of T. calidris and T. semipalmatus partially appear in T. terekius and T. Itgpo- 

 leucus. The dark axillaries narrowly barred with white of T. ocliropus and T. solitarius 

 are intermediate between the dark unbarred axillaries of T. semipalmatus, T. incanus (and 

 its subspecific form T. brevipes), and the broadly barred axillaries of T. bartrami, which 

 lead on through the nearly white axillaries of T. melanoleucus, T. flavipes, and T. glareola 

 to those of T. glottis, T. guttiferus, and T. calidris, which are sometimes quite white and 

 sometimes more or less barred with brown, and those of T.fuscus, T. stagnatilis, T. terekius, 

 T. hypoleucus, T. macularius, and T. pugnax, which are always white. 



To split up such a homogeneous group of birds into half a dozen or more genera, 

 founded on trivial and obviously adaptive characters, appears to me to be childish. To 

 place T. guttiferus and T. glottis in different genera because the former has a slight web 

 between the inner and middle toes, or to separate T. glareola from T. flavipes because there 

 is a slight difference in the comparative lengths of the middle toe and the tarsus, ajjpears 



