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Genus MACHETES. 



Tringa apud Brisson, Orn. v. p. 290 (1760). 



Pavoncella apud Leach, Syst. Cat. M. & B. Brit. Mus. p. 29 (1816). 



Machetes, Cuvier, Regn. Anim. i. p. 490 (1817). 



Limosa apud J. E. Gray, 111. Ind. Zool. ii. pi. 52. fig. 2 (1835). 



Totanus apud J. E. Gray, torn. cit. pi. 52. fig. 1 (1835). 



Philomachus apud G. R. Gray, List of Gen. of B. p. 89 (1841). 



This genus contains only a single species, Machetes pugnax, which inhabits the Palsearctic, 

 Oriental, and Ethiopian Regions, being also a rare straggler to the Nearctic and Neotropical 

 Regions. Full particulars of its habits and nidification are given in the following article; so I 

 need not recapitulate them here. 



Machetes pugnax, the type of the genus, has the bill longer than the head, higher than 

 broad at the base, tapering to the point, which is flattened, gradually rounded and obtuse; nasal 

 groove extending nearly to the end ; the nostrils moderate, basal, linear, pervious ; wings long, 

 pointed, the first quill longest, the second but a shade shorter ; some of the inner secondaries 

 much elongated ; tail rather short, doubly emarginate ; legs long, the tibia bare for one third of 

 its length ; tarsus slender, compressed, scutellate ; hind toe small, anterior toes long, scutellate, 

 marginate, the outer and middle ones connected at the base by a web ; claws small, arched, 

 compressed, acute. In summer plumage the face of the male is covered with fleshy tubercles, 

 and the neck encircled by a large ruff of elongated feathers. 



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