Genus — I LI 0 R N I S . 
luoRNis Kaup, Skizz Entwick Gesch. Nat. Syst, p. 156, 
1829 Type /. stagnatilis. 
Also spelt llyornis, id.^ ih., p. 195. 
Medium Totanine Waders with long straight slender bills, very long wings, 
very long legs with long exposed tibia, and tails of medium length. 
The culmen is long and slender, with the tip of the upper mandible hard 
and not expanded but turned down over the lower mandible ; the grooves in 
both mandibles are short and less than half the length of the culmen. The 
wings are long and pointed, the first primary longest. 
The metatarsus is very long and regularly scutellate both in front and 
behind and equal to, or more than twice the length of, the middle toe ; it is also 
more than one-third the length of the wing. The exposed tibia is very long, 
equaUing the middle toe in length. The tail is a little longer than the 
metatarsus. The toes are long and slender with a distinct web between the 
outer and the middle one, and a scarcely noticeable web between the middle 
and inner toe. Hind toe present. 
The preceding diagnosis is based on the Totanus stagnatilis of Bechstein, 
which is one of the five species included in the Catalogue of the Birds in the 
British Museum in the genus Totanus. The diagnosis there given (Vol. XXIV, 
p. 338) reads : — 
Bill straight, the tip of the upper mandible slightly decurved at the tip. 
Outer toe joined to the middle one by a distinct web at the base, the inner toe 
scarcely united to the middle one. 
Tarsus much longer than middle toe without claw, being more 
than one and a half times as long as the toe Totanus. 
Tarsus much shorter and scarcely exceeding the length of the 
middle toe and claw Helodronuis. 
In the genus Totanus^ Sharpe included Totanus fuscus Linne, imlanoleucus 
Gmelin, calidris Linne, stagnatilis Bechstein, and flavipes Gmelin. The 
association of such different birds in one genus seems incapable of explanation, 
more especially when we find that T. hypoleucus and T. ochropus are separated. 
The species melanoleucus is so like Glottis nehularius^ that it was associated 
with it continually by American authors, and appeared in conjunction with 
it in the second edition of the American Ornithologists’ Union’s Checklist, 
197 
