GENERIC CHARACTERS. 



Bill, long, slender, straight : nostrils, basal : wings, moderate : the three first primary 

 feathers, nearly equal ; second, the longest : tail, slightly rounded : tarsi, moderate : toes, long 

 and slender : no hind toe. The plumage of the young differs from the adult. 



Mitchell's Slenderfoot. 



Leptopus Mitchelli, Fraser, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1844, p. 157. 

 Leptodactylus Mitchelli, ibid. 



The bill of this bird is of the same structure as that of Totanus cMoropygius, Vieill., while 

 the feet resemble those of Hiaticula tricollaris ; thereby rendering it particularly interesting, as 

 being directly intermediate between two groups hitherto considered by naturalists as belonging to 

 distinct families. Its habits remain as yet to be recorded. 



The Leptopus Mitchelli has hitherto only been found in the swampy places of the Andes, 

 central Chile. 



Front, cheek, and throat, soot-coloured ; crown of the head, the same, surrounded by a white 

 line ; nape and sides of neck, rusty ; upper surface of body, grey-brown, with purplish reflections ; 

 a band across the chest, white ; under surface, minutely barred with brownish black and white, 

 alternately ; bill, greenish ; legs and feet, yellow ; claws, black. 



Another specimen, which I take to be the young of the above, has an undefined white line 

 passing from eye to eye round the back of the head ; the whole upper surface of the body, 

 irregularly barred and mottled with ferruginous and blackish brown ; cheeks and throat, mottled 

 with soot colour ; the breast barred in a similar manner to the adult, which barring is almost lost 

 on the belly; vent and thighs, white. 



Total length, seven inches. 



