- 
SCOLOPACINiE. 
Tringa macularia, Lath. Ind. Ornith. ii. 734. — Totanus 
macularius, Temm. Man. d’Ornith. ii. 656. — Actitis macula- 
ria, Spotted Weet-weet, MacGillivray, Brit. Birds, iv. 
FAMILY XXXVII. SCOLOPACINiE. SCO- 
LOPACINE BIRDS, OR SNIPES. 
Although, when viewed collectively, the Scolopacinse 
present peculiar characters by which they may he dis- 
tinguished as a family, yet some of them are so closely 
allied to several of the Tringinse, that, in description, j 
they can scarcely be distinctly separated, so that the 
limits of the two families cannot he clearly marked. i 
The general characters of the Scolopacinse, however, ap- 
pear to he the following. They are birds of small size, 
our Woodcock being among the largest, with the body j 
compact and rather full ; the neck of moderate length ; 
the head much compressed, and rounded above. The i 
bill is always very long, flexible, straight, slender, com- 
pressed, toward the end enlarged, depressed, and having 
numerous nervous filaments under the cuticle, which, on 
becoming dry, is marked with scrobiculi or small de- 
pressions ; the tips of both mandibles hard, narrowly 
obtuse, that of the lower shorter, and received into the 
upper, so as to offer no impediment to the intrusion of 
the bill into the mud. This character occurs slightly I 
in some of the Tringinse also. The mouth extremely 
narrow ; the tongue long, very slender, soft, thin, chan- ; 
nelled above, acutely pointed ; the roof of the mouth 
with a double series of short, pointed, reversed, papillae ; 
oesophagus narrow ; stomach a roundish, compressed, 
muscular gizzard, with dense plicate epithelium ; intes- 
tine of moderate length and width ; coeca rather long. 
Nostrils very small, linear, basal. Eyes moderate, ge- 
nerally high on the head. Aperture of ear large, round- 
