I 
THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA. 
Sharpe’s treatment of these Httle Stints in the Catalogue of the Birds in the 
British Museum is not happy. In Vol. XXIV. he admits two genera, Liinonites 
and Heteropygia^ with the differential diagnosis as follows (p. 520) : — 
Tarsus and culmen practically equal in length. 
A hind-toe present ; bill not spatulate. 
Tarsus about equal to middle-toe and claw Limonites. 
Tarsus longer than middle-toe and claw Heteropygia. 
In Limonites is admitted minuta^ ruficollis, minutilla, da/tnacensis, and 
teimninchi; and as members of Heteropygia he placed maculata^ acuminata, 
l)airdi, and fuscicollis. But the majority of these latter species have the 
cuhnen noticeably smaller than the tarsus, while minuta, placed in Limonites, 
has the tarsus much longer than the middle toe and claw. 
Consequently some other means of differentiating the species must 
necessarily be found if more than one genus is admitted. In the American 
Ornithological Union’s Checklist, 3rd edition, 1910, pp. 113-115, the American 
species were all placed under Pisobia {= Limonites), viz. aurita {==acuminata), 
7naculata, fuscicollis, hairdi, minutilla, and damacensis. This seems a some- 
what strange conclusion, as in the same place Pelidna and Erolia are 
admitted as distinct vahd genera. 
When Goues wrote up the “ Monograph of the Tringse ” {Proc. Acad. 
Nat. Sci. Philad. 1861), on p. 190 he diagnosed the genus Actodrmnas 
{=Pisobia), and then separated Heteropygia thus : “ with Tringa honapartei 
{=fuscicollis) as type . . . differs in the stouter biU, more expanded at tip : 
in the much less extent of the encroachment of the feathers on the lower 
mandible ; in the longer legs, the tarsus rather exceeding the middle toe ; 
in the entire absence of the brownish or ashy suffusion on the jugulum, and in 
the white upper tail covers.” 
At the same time he placed maculata in the typical section, not in 
Heteropygia. 
In his diagnosis of the genus Actodrmnas {=Pisohia) he wrote : “ Tail 
rather long, deeply doubly emarginate, the central feathers much projecting.” 
I find this quite correct for the smaller species, 7ninutu, etc., and also for 
fuscicollis, the type of Heteropygia ; but the tail in acwninata is long and 
regularly wedge-shaped : in addition this species is much larger, more 
stoutly built, with more powerful legs and feet, etc. I am therefore using 
for it Gould’s generic name Lhnnocinclus. 
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