NATURAL SCIENCES OE PHILADELPHIA. 
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authors. It has been placed in seven different genera, — Scolopax , Numenius , 
Tringa , Falcinellus , Pelidna , Ancylocheilus and (according to Gen. Rep.) Erolia. 
It was probably the long, slender, decurved bill which caused some of the 
earlier authors to consider it as a Numenius. The Numenius subarquata, Bechst., 
or the Scolopax subarquata , Gm., is the summer plumage of this species, and 
the Numenius Africanus , Lath., or the Scolopax Africanus , Gm., the winter. The 
N. ferrugineus, Mev. is this species, according to Yieillot; and Temminck also 
gives N. piggmceusj Bechst. as a synonym, considering it as the young before the 
first moult. The “Red Sandpiper” of Latham and Pennant refers to this 
species, though in the synonymy the former gives T. Icelandica , Linn, and T. 
ferruginea , Briinn., both of which names are synonyms of T. canutus. The 
relationships of Erolia variegata or AErolia varia have already been discussed 
under the head of Ancylocheilus. 
PELIDNA Cuvier. 
? ? Schoeniclus, Mce hring, Gen. Av. 1752, 77. 
Pelidna , Cuvier, Regne Anim. 1817, 490. Typus T. cinclus , L. 
Char. Bill stout, much longer than the head or tarsus, decurved, depressed, 
tip somewhat expanded and punctulate. Grooves in both mandibles very deep 
and distinct. Wings moderate ; tertials long, narrow and flowing. Tail rather 
long, deeply doubly emarginate, the central feathers projecting. Legs mode- 
rate, or rather long. Tarsus but little if any longer than the middle toe. Bare 
portion of tibia more than half the tarsus. Toes rather long, and narrowly 
margined. 
The essential characters of this genus lie in the long, stout, decurved bill, 
longer than the head or tarsus, and the tarsus but little longer than the middle 
toe, approaching in this respect to Actodromas, to which, in the doubly emar- 
ginate tail and, to some extent, the general pattern of coloration and changes 
of plumage, it is still more nearly related. Its affinities to Ancylocheilus , which 
are close, will be found discussed under that head. The genus is very variable 
in the length of its bill, though the legs, as usual among the Tringece , are pretty 
constant. The colors of the two species of the group are subject to many and 
great variations dependent upon age and season, which in each have given rise 
to a second nominal species. In addition to these, minor differences in size 
and color have been made the grounds of specific distinction by some European 
writers. With these, however, the present monograph has nothing to do, since, 
in according to the American bird specific distinction from that of Europe, the 
intricate and difficult synonymy of the latter is excluded. 
The genus Pelidna , of Cuvier, (1817), has been employed by different writers 
in a very unnatural manner to designate the smaller Sandpipers indiscrimi- 
nately, nearly all the species having been at one time or another included in it, 
grouped together without the slightest regard to their natural affinities. This 
is pei haps due in a measure to the very loose manner in which it is character- 
ized by Cuvier, who merely says, in instituting the genus, — “ les Pelidnes ne 
sont que de petites maubeches, a bee un peu plus loDg que la tete, et dont les 
pieds n’ont ni bordures ni palmures.” The genus has in consequence fallen 
somewhat into disrepute among later ornithologists, who generally avoid the 
use of it ; but still it must stand for the type upon which it was founded (T. 
cinclus , L.) if no other name has been previously proposed for the same group. 
Schoeniclus, of Mcehring, (1752), is said by some authors to refer to that type ; 
but I can find no characters which restrict it to the T. cinclus. The brief diag- 
nosis is as follows : “ Rostrum digitis cum ungue fere aequale. Pes tetradac- 
tyla. Membrana dimidium primum articulum inter extimum et medium digitum 
occupans.” Now as the bill is not “ about equal to the middle toe and claw,” 
but very much longer, and as there is scarcely the rudiment of a membrane 
between the outer and middle toe, which does not nearly occupy “ half the first 
joint,” the only character left which really belongs to the T. Alpina is (l pes 
1861 .] 
