310 
PRAECOCIAL GRALLATORES — LIMICOLhE. 
The Spoon-billed Sandpiper is said to frequent the mud-flats at the mouths of 
rivers and the sands of the sea-shore, where, in company with various species of 
Tringce, it procures from the surface of the water an abundant harvest of such food 
as is always left by a receding tide. Of its nidification nothing is as yet known. 
Genus NUMENIUS, Brisson. 
Numenius, Briss. Orn. V. 1760, 311 (type, Scolopax arquata, Linn.). 
Char. Legs covered anteriorly with transverse scutellre, laterally and behind with small hexag- 
onal scales. Bill very long, exceeding the tibia, and curved downward for the terminal half; 
the culmen rounded. Tip of bill expanded laterally and club-shaped. Grooves of bill not reaching 
beyond the middle. Tertials as long as primaries. ' 
Bill variable in length, always longer than tarsus, sometimes exceeding tarsus and toes. It is 
nearly straight at the base, then decurving quite rapidly to the tip, where the upper mandible is 
thickened downward beyond and over the lower. Lateral grooves occupying only the basal half 
or third of the bill ; under mandible not grooved beneath. Cleft of mouth extending but little 
beyond the base of culmen. Feathers of head extending about the same distance on both man- 
dibles ; those of chin to opposite the anterior extremity of the nostrils. Tarsi nearly twice as long 
as middle toe, rather more than twice the bare part of tibia ; covered behind by hexagonal scales 
larger than the lateral ones. Outer toe webbed for its basal joint ; inner for half this distance 
Tail short, nearly even, not quite half the wings. Tertials as long as the primaries. 
Of the genus Numenius several species are found in North America, none of them occurring 
regularly in the Old World, as is the case with so many of the Tringece. 
American Species. 
A. Thighs not bristled. 
a. Rump not white. 
1. N. longirostris. Wing, 10.00-12.00 ; culmen, 3.80-8.50 ; tarsus, 2.25-3.50 ; middle toe, 
1.30-1.55. Lower parts pale cinnamon ; axillars deep cinnamon, without distinct bars ; 
crown uniformly streaked, without median stripe. I lab. Temperate North America, 
south to Guatemala, Cuba, Jamaica, and Brazil (?). 
