OF ORNITHOLOGY 103 



FAMILY XL PHALAROPODIDAE THE 

 PHALAROPES 



Greek phalaris the "coot," pous a foot; coot-footed. 

 This small family is sometimes placed near the end of the 

 Shore Birds rather than near the beginning. The position we 

 give to it, near its. larger allies, seems to us more natural, and 

 leaves nothing between the Snipes and the following order. 

 The family contains three genera of one species each. The 

 main characters of the family have been given in the previ- 

 ous table, the other points of peculiarity are : feet lobate, toes 

 with narrow membranes — with either plain or lobed edges ; 

 tarsus thin but wide. The general appearance of these birds 

 is much like that of a small sandpiper, but the plumage is 

 trim, close-fitting, and like birds that spend the greater part 

 of their time in the water, as these do. The bill differs con- 

 siderably in the different genera, as do also the feet. The 

 birds are small, and are to be found, often in immense flocks, 

 just off shore all along our coast and rarely in inland waters. 



Genera, Steganopus, Wilson's Phalarope. 



Lobipes, The Northern Phalarope. 

 Phalaropus, The Red Phalarope. 



These genera are all quite stable, even hardly interchangeable, though all 

 went formerly under the one name Phalaropus. 



FAMILY XLI SCOLOPACIDAE THE SNIPES 



AND SANDPIPERS 



Greek skolopax, Latin scolopax, a woodcock or' snipe. 

 This family is, without doubt, the most numerous and the 

 most difficult with which the young student will have to con- 

 tend among all the Water Birds. It is, in fact, at least 

 third if not second in importance in the whole Class. The 

 general resemblance of the species will at once show that they 

 belong to this family, but there are a good many individuals 

 that will cause very great trouble to the beginner. The table 

 placed at the beginning of this division will, in a great meas- 

 ure, help to remove the difficulties of identification ; yet much 

 will remain to be done, even with that aid, in guiding the stu- 



