SCOLOPACID^: TATTLERS. 
643 
black. This curious tracery, best seen from below, is diagnostic; though the precise pat- 
tern varies interminably. The patch of under coverts at the bases of the primaries have 
the same character. Axillars white ; lining of wings white or rufescent. Iris brown. 
Bill brownish-black; legs greenish or yellowish. Length 7-50-8-25; extent about 16.00; 
wing 5.00-5.25 ; tail 2-50; bill along culmen 0.67-0.75^ along gape 1.00; tarsus 1.20; 
middle toe and claw under 1.00. Fall plumage : Under parts less rufescent, frequently simply 
tawny- whitish; and the broad ochrey or tawny edgings of the feathers of the upper parts 
replaced by narrow whitish streakings, in a set of semicircles. Wings and tail as in spring. 
N. Am. at large, and a frequent European straggler, but apparently nowhere abundant; 
migratory in the U. S. ; S. in winter through S. Am. ; breeds in high latitudes. Eggs usually 
4, pointedly pyriform, 1.40 to 1.50 X 1-02 to 1.10; the ground clay, sometimes slightly oliva- 
ceous, often quite grayish ; markings extremely bold and sharp, in heavy blotches and indeter- 
minate spots all over the eggs, but largest and most numerous at the greater end ; colors rich 
umber-brown, of varying shade. Nearest these blotched samples are the splashed ones, with 
markings massed at greater end, elsewhere splattered in small pattern. Others are spotted with 
narrow markings radiating from the large end, almost wreathing about the greatest diameter. 
All with the usual neutral-tint shell-markings ; most with scratchy blackish marks over all. 
250. HETERO'SCELUS. (Gr. erepos, heteros, different, otherwise ; a-KeXos, skelos, leg.) Short- 
legged Tattler. Bill totanine, longer than head or tarsus, straight, rather stout, much com- 
pressed, both mandibles grooved for about two-thirds their length, with inflected tomia beyond. 
Gape of mouth extending beyond base of column : feathers of equal extent on sides of both 
mandibles, those of chin reaching much farther. Wings long, pointed, folding about to end of 
tail ; 1st and 2d quills subequal and longest. Tail short, less than half the wing, nearly even. 
Legs short, somewhat rugous, reticulate except on front of tarsus, where imperfectly or incom- 
pletely scutellate ; tibise denuded for a space about half as long as tarsus ; tarsus longer than 
middle toe and claw, shorter than bill; outer longer than inner lateral toe; a large basal web 
between outer and middle, a rudimentary one between middle and inner ; hind toe long, about 
equalling 1st joint of inner toe. One species, remarkable for the character of tarsal envelope 
and perfect uniformity of color of upper parts. 
64!lo H.' inca'nus. (Lat. incanus, quite gray.) Wandering Tattler. Upper parts perfectly 
uniform dark plumbeous, or slaty-gray, including the wholly unmarked tail, wing-coverts, and 
inner quills, the longer quills gradually blackening, the shaft of the first primary nearly all 
white ; a white line over eye. Lining of wings, axillars, and sides of body colored like the back, 
but varied with white. Under parts in general white ; in one plumage without markings, but 
heavily shaded on neck, breast, and sides with the color of the back ; in another, heavily 
marked with blackish-plumbeous — speckled on throat, streaked on neck, wavy-barred on breast, 
sides, and crissum. Bill black, apparently pale at base of under mandible. Length about 
10.00; wing 6.50; tail 3.00; bill 1.50; tarsus 1.25; mid- 
dle toe and claw a little less. A species of almost universal 
distribution on the coast and islands of the Pacific, com- 
mon in summer on the shores of Alaska ; described under 
at least twelve different names. 
251. NUME'NIUS. (Gr. j/e'oy, neos, new; nr]vr}, mene, the 
moon : the long curved bill, like a crescent. Fig. 450.) 
Curlews. BiU of very variable length, always longer 
than head, probably always exceeding the tarsus, some- 
times more than length of entire leg; slender, curved Fig. 450. —Long-billed Curlew, greatly 
downward, the tip of the upper mandible knobbed and reduced. 
overhanging the end of the lower ; obsoletely grooved nearly to end. Gape of mouth 
extended beyond base of culmen. Feathers reaching about equally far on sides of each man- 
