54 



GRALLATORES. 

 Family SCOL PA CIDJE. (Bonaparte.) 



Genus NuMENius. (Limiceus.) 



Generic Characters. — Beak very long, curved, compressed 

 slightly; upper mandible furrowed for three parts of its length, 

 its point hard and obtuse, and overlaps the inferior mandible; 

 nostrils lateral, linear, opening into the beak through the 

 furrow. Face and the space from the eye to the beak 

 covered with feathers. Legs slender, naked above the knee; 

 three toes in front and one behind, the anterior united by a 

 membrane as far as the first articulation, the hind articulated 

 to the tarsus, and touches the ground. Wings medium size, 

 the first primary the longest. 



SLENDER-BILLED CURLEW. 



Nimienius tenuirostris. 



Numenius tenuirostris, Vieillot; Diet., 1817. 



" liastatas, Contarini. 



" syngenicos, MuHLE. 



Courtis a bee grete. Of the French. 



Dunnschndhliger Braclvogel, Of the Germans. 



Ciurlottello, Savi. 



Specific Characiers. — Beak slender and sliort; under wing coverts 

 pure unspotted white; the spots on the abdomen shaped like a 

 spear's head. Length fifteen inches; carpus to tip nine inches 

 and a half; tarsus two inches and a half; middle toe and claw 



