610 
SYSTEMA TIC SYNOPSIS. — LIMICOL^. 
and full-webbed ; the bill is decidedly recurved, flattened, and tapers to a needle-like point ; 
the body is depressed ; the plumage underneath is thickened as in water-birds. The species 
swim well. Himantopus is 3-toed, semipalmate, the bill nearly straight, and not flattened ; in 
relative length of leg it is probably not surpassed by any bird whatsoever. These two genera, 
each of three or four species of various parts of the world, with the Cladorhynchus pectoralis 
of Australia, compose the ftimily. 
224. RECURVIROS'TRA. (Lat. recwri'ws, bent upward ; ros^nm, bill. Fig. 425.) Avocets. 
Fig. 425. —European Avocet, Recurvirostra avocetta, \ nat. size. (From Brelim.) 
Bill excessively slender, more or less recurved, then the upper mandible hooked at the extreme 
tip ; much longer than head, more or less nearly equalling tail and tarsus ; flattened on top, 
without culminal ridge. Wings short (for a wader). Tail very short, square, less than half 
the wing. Legs exceedingly long and slender ; tibiae long-denuded ; tarsus nearly twice as 
long as middle toe and claw: covering of legs skinny. Feet 4-toed; the front toes full- webbed, 
hind toe short, free. Body remarkably depressed and feathered underneath Math thick duck- 
like plumage ; altogether, as in swimming rather than as in wading birds. It is a modification 
