FOOT-NOTES FROM A PAGE OF SAND. 303 
ties is rapidly narrowing; we have only left whence to pick, 
the families of birds that make up the group Limicole, or 
the shore-waders, as distinguished from the Paludicole, or 
marsh-waders. Conning the Zimicole over in mind, we 
fine there are but two families furnishing in our locality any 
species so small that the imprint of its toes is less than an 
inch long. These are the Plover and.the Snipe families 
(Char qadrii and Scolopacide). 
We noticed just in front of the point pom the lines of 
the three toes came together—at the "heel," as it is gen- 
erally but wrongly called —that the depression of the heel- 
mark continued a slight distance between the bases of the 
toes. Clearly there must have been something of a web con- 
necting the roots of the toes, just as our fingers are joined 
at the hand. Now our plovers and snipes each furnish us 
one, and only one, bird that is partially webbed and small 
‘enough to have made the tracks; these two are the Semipal- 
mated or Ring Plover (Ægialitis semipalmatus) and the 
Semipalmated Sandpiper (Hreunetes pusillus) ; it might have 
been either, for anything we have yet noticed. Which was 
it? We have exhausted our foot-data, but still one mark is 
left, and that decides. The snipes have long bills, vascular, 
nervous, and sensitive at the tip; these are organs of touch; 
the birds feel for things they cannot see. The plovers 
have short bills, comparatively hard at the tip. There were 
little round holes in the sand, just where the lines tangled 
up ; this was where the little bird stuck in its bill and probed 
for something. It would be useless for a plover to do this, 
for it could not fee! anything if it did; we infer then, that 
a plover never would. And so at last, the bird stands con- 
fessed ; Semipalmated Sandpiper, Hreunetes pusillus ; section 
Tringee, of family Scolopacide, of group Limicole, of 
order Grallte, of subclass Cursores, of class Aves or BIRDS. 
