Rocky Mountains. 171 



distend the stomach, and appease in a degree the cravings of 

 hunger. 



Their bark is much more distinctly like that of the do- 

 mestic dog, than of any other animal ; in fact the first 



tip of the upper mandible, and in having this part dilated and rugose; but 

 the eye is not large, nor is it placed far back upon the head; which two 

 latter characters, combined with its more elevated and slender figure, and 

 the circumstance of the thighs being denudated of feathers high above 

 the knee, and the exterior toe being united to the middle toe by a mem- 

 brane, which extends as far as the first joint, and the toes being also 

 margined, combine to distinguish this species, from those of the genus to 

 which the form and characters of its bill would refer it, and approach it 

 more closely to Limosa. In one specimen the two exterior primaries on 

 each wing, were light brown, but the quills were white. It may perhaps 

 with propriety, be considered as the type of a new genus, and under the 

 following characters, be placed between the genera Scolopax and Limosa. 

 Bill longer than the head, dilated and rugose at tip; tip slightly curved 

 downwards, and with a dorsal groove; nasal groove elongated; feet long, 

 an extensive naked space above the knee; toes slightly margined, a mem- 

 brane connecting the basal joints of the exterior toes; first of the primaries 

 rather longest. 



Genus Pelidna. Cuv. 

 I Pelidna pecioralis. Bill black, reddish-yellow at base; upper man- 

 dible with a few indented punctures near the tip; head above black, 

 plumage margined with ferruginous, a distinct brown Hue from the eye to 

 the upper mandible: cheeks and neck beneath cinereous very slightly ting- 

 ed with rufous, and hneate with blackish; orbits and line over the eye 

 white; chin white; neck above dusky, plumage margined with cinereous; 

 scapulars, interscapulars, and wing coverts black, margined fvith fer- 

 ruginous, and near the exterior tips with whitish; primaries dusky, slight- 

 ly edged with whitish, outer quill shaft white; back, (beneath the inter- 

 scapulars) rump, and tail coverts black, immaculate; tail feathers dusky, 

 margined with white at tip, two intermediate ones longest, acute, attain- 

 ing the tip of the wings, black, edged with ferruginous; breast, venter, vent 

 and inferior tail coverts white, plumage blackish at base; sides white, the 

 plumage towards the tail slightly lineate with dusky , feet greenish-yel- 

 low; toes divided to the base. 



Length nearly ... 9 inches 



Bill . . . . .11-8 



This bird in many respects resembles cinrlus, but as the average size of 

 that bird is stated at seven inches and one or two lines, ours is doubtless 

 a distinct species. Mauy flocks of them were seen at Engineer Canton- 

 ment, both in the Spring and Autumn, the individuals of which corres- 

 ponded in point of magnitude: we add a description for the information of 

 ornithologists. It is described from a specimeu in the autumnal plu- 

 mage. In the spring dress, the colour of the superior part of the bird is 

 much paler, almost destitute of black, and the feathers are brownish, mar- 

 gined with pale cinereous. The superior part of the head is alvays dark- 

 er than any part of the neck, and margined with ferruginous; the plumage 

 of the neck beneath, and the breast, does not appear to be subject to so 

 much chaDgc, as that of the superior part of the body. 



