Family— R OSTRATULID^. 
GEinis — ^ROSTRATULA. 
Rostratula Vieillot, Analyse Nouv. Ornith., p. 56, 
1816 (AprU) Type R. capensis, 
Rhynchcea Cuvier, Regne Anim., Vol. I., p. 487, 1816 
. . Type R. capensis. 
Also spelt — 
Rhynchma Fleming, Philos. Zool., Vol. II., p. 255, 1822. 
Rhynchea Boie, Isis 1826, p. 979. 
Rhnchoea Gray, Zool. Miscel., p. 18, 1831. 
Rhynchaena Gloger, Hand u. Hilfsb. Naturg., p. 424, 1842. 
ScoLOPACiNE (?) birds with long decurved bills, long wings, long legs and feet. 
The bOl is long, hard, narrow, and decurved at the tip ; a deep narrow 
groove extends more than half-way along the sides of the upper mandible 
and ends abruptly ; the bill is narrow at the base and about the same width 
all the way, somewhat flattened immediately after the ending of the groove, 
but then the tip is obsoletely keeled with a slight grooving at the sides ; the 
under mandible can scarcely be said to be grooved, but shallowly channelled 
on the side, and the tip of the same form as that of the upper mandible. The 
culmen is less than one-third the length of the wing and about equal to the 
metatarsus, which is longer than the middle toe. 
The wing is somewhat concave though the first primary is longest, the 
second and third being Httle shorter. 
The metatarsus is scutellate in front and behind with part of the tibia 
unfeathered ; the toes are long with no interwebbing ; the tail is short, 
composed of sixteen feathers. I can see no close relationship between the 
birds of this genus and Gallinagme birds. 
Seebohm (Z.c., p. 456) placed them in the Charadriidm, but the only 
argument he produced reads : “ There can scarcely be any doubt that the 
affinities of RhynchcBa are with Scolopax {sensu lat.). The pale mesial line 
on the crown and the two pale stripes on the back can scarcely have been 
independently acquired, and were doubtless inherited from a common 
ancestor, showing how important certain arrangements of colour sometimes 
are as generic characters, in many cases dating far earlier than the so-caUed 
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