54 



GRALLATOEES. 

 Family SCOLOPACID^. (Bonaparte.) 



Genus Numenius. f Linnceus.J 



GeneriG 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 touclies the ground. AYings medium size, 

 the first primary the longest. 



SLENDER-BILLED CURLEW. 



Numenius tenuirostris . 



Numenius tenuirostris, Vieillot; Diet., 1817. 



" hastatas, Contarini. 



" syngenicos, MOhle. 



Courtis a I)ec grete, Of the Feench. 



Dunnschndhliger BracJivogel, Of the Germans. 



Citirhttelln, Savi. 



Specific Characters. — 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 



