266 
PR.ECOCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOL^. 
and young are found fully fledged about the middle of June. It breeds in large soci- 
eties, in damp places covered with a thin herbage, where there are tussocks, or small 
dry places ; and also in scattered pairs in the fields, and in small marshes covered 
with grass or bushes. In a dry spot the bird makes a depression about three inches 
deep, lining it neatly and carefully with dry grasses, and depositing four eggs, on which 
both male and female sit. If an intruder approaches this colony, the birds meet him 
when at some distance from it, uttering loud cries ; and when he is amongst the nests 
all the birds fly overhead, uttering continual lamentations. Before they have eggs 
they are very shy, rarely approaching within gunshot ; but when the young are 
hatched they are very courageous, and will come within a few feet of the intruder. 
Mr. A. Benzon — also quoted by Mr. Dresser — met with this bird nesting in Den- 
mark, on the west coast of Jutland. He obtained its eggs as early as April 12 and 
as late as July 4. They were usually deposited early in May. 
Genus TOTANUS, Bechstein. 
Totanus, Bechst. Orn. Taschenb. Deutschl. 1803, 282 (type, Scolopax totanus, Linn.). — Naum. 
Vog. Deutselil. VIII. 53. — Gray, Gen. B. III. 572. 
Glottis, Koch, Baier. Zool. 1816, 304 (type, Totanus glottis, Bechst., = nebularius, Gunn.). — 
Nilss. Orn. Suec. II. 1817, 55. 
Oambetta, Kaup. Sk. Ent. Eur. Thierw. 1829, 54 (type, Scolopax calidris, Linn.). 
Char. Bill usually slender, and slightly upturned terminally, the lateral groove of the max- 
illa extending about half way to the tip. No web between the middle and inner toes. Tarsus 
about twice as long as the middle toe. 
Having carefully examined and compared the five species usually referred to the so-called 
genera Gambetta, Totanus, and Glottis , with their nearest allies, with the view of defining the sev- 
eral generic groups usually recognized, we find that no two species agree exactly in the details of 
T. melanoleucus. 
structure, and that, therefore, no characters exist which warrant a subdivision of the genus Totanus 
(with T. stagnatilis as type), beyond the recognition of Rhyacopliilus and Erythroscelus. The only 
species agreeing closely with the type of the genus Totanus is the American “ Gambetta ” flavipes 
(C4mel.), which differs in having the bill thicker and not at all upturned terminally, and in the 
much longer primaries, with shorter and broader tertials ; the latter in T. stagnatilis reaching 
nearly to the end of the longest epulis. “ Gambetta” melanoleuca (Gmel.) is like flavipes in regard 
