108 
PKzECOCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOLiE. 
Charadriidse. Size large to very small. Bill slender or small, straight, always shorter than 
the tarsus. 
Anarhynchidae. Size small. Bill slender, curved to one side, equal to the tarsus. 
CEdicnemidae. Size very large (much the largest birds of the order). Tarsus nearly three 
times as long as the middle toe, covered in front with hexagonal scales. Plumage very 
plain, conspicuously streaked or striped above. 
B>. Characters much the same as given for section “ C,” hut toes, including the hallux, exceed- 
ingly lengthened, the claws also very much lengthened ; scutellation of legs much as in 
the Rallidse. 
Parridae. Size medium or rather small. Claws very long and compressed, nearly straight, 
that of the hallux equal to or longer than its digit, linear, and slightly recurved. Bend 
of the wing (head of metacarpus) armed with a sharp conical horny spur. 
E. Bill exceedingly variable, — short or long, straight, slightly recurved, or decidedly decurved, 
but usually more or less expanded laterally at the end, which is more or less sensitive. 
Hind toe usually present, rarely absent. 
Scolopacidae. Tarsus rounded in front, where clothed with a single row of transverse 
scutellae. 
F. Bill subulate (except in Phalaropus). Toes either partly webbed, or fringed by a lateral, 
usually lobecl, margin. Plumage peculiarly soft and compact for this order, resembling 
greatly in this respect that of the Longipennes. Tarsi compressed, the anterior edge sharp. 
Phalaropodidse. Size small ; tarsi and bill rather short, or but moderately lengthened ; toes 
edged with a lateral, usually scalloped, margin. 
Recurvirostridae. Size large ; tarsi and bill very long ; toes partly webbed, and without 
scallopped margin. 
Family HdEMATOPODIDzE. — The Oyster Catchers. 
Hcematopince, “ G. R. Guay, 1840.” 
Hcematopodince, “ G. It. Gray, 1841;” Handl. III. 1871, 21. 
Ostralcgince, “Reich. 1849.” 
This family is characterized by the large size of the birds which compose it, 
their long, extremely compressed, almost knife-like and nearly truncate bill ; their 
robust legs and feet, the former covered in front with hexagonal scales, the latter 
destitute of a hind toe, and having a well-developed web between the outer 
and middle toes, at their base. Properly restricted, it includes only the genus 
Hcematopus, the characters of which are the same as those of the family. 
Genus H^MATOPUS, Linnasus. 
Hccmatopus, Linn. S. N. ed. 10, 1758, 152 ; ed. 12, 1766, 257 (type, II. ostralegus, Linn.). 
Ostralcga, Briss. Orn. Y. 1760, 38 (same type). 
Melanibyx, Reich. Handb. 1853, p. xii (type, II. niger, Pall.). 
Synopsis of North American Species. 
Com. Char. Bill bright red in life (dull reddish or yellowish in dried skins) ; head, neck, 
and most of upper parts blackish (in some species entire plumage blackish). 
A. Plumage parti-colored (white and blackish). 
1 . H. ostralegus. Entire rump white ; back and wdngs black, like the neck and breast ; iris 
