EOSTRATULA. 
structural characters.” As Scohpax rusticola Lmn6, the type of Scolopax, 
has no mesial line on the crown nor pale stripes on the back, little value 
can be attached to Seebohm’s dictum. 
In the Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum, Vol. XXIV., 
p. 521, 1896, Sharpe simply included the genus in the subfamily Scolopacince 
with the diagnosis : — 
“ Tarsus equal to the middle toe and claw : bill not perceptibly widened 
at the end nor pitted : the tip decurved : sexes remarkably dissimilar in 
plumage.” 
Examination shows the species of Rostratula to have a bill dissimilar in 
most respects to that of a Scolopacine bird ; to have the eye normally placed 
and not like that of a Snipe ; to have a very dissimilar style of plumage 
with sexes differently coloured ; to lay peculiarly coloured eggs. 
Without careful criticism of the plumage-changes and study of the 
internal anatomy, it is impossible to accurately place the genus, and though 
it seems to have little close affinity with the 8colopacidoe, I am leaving it in 
the neighbourhood but placing it in a separate family ROSTRATULIDuE. 
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