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ESQUIMAUX CURLEW. 
123 
Wherever the Curlews may be classed by ornithologists, their 
rank in the system of Nature is at the head of the family Limicolas, 
which they connect with the Falcati. Their linear place, therefore, 
is between the genera Ibis of the latter, and Tringa of their\)wn 
family: species of the latter genus are so closely related to them 
as almost to fluctuate between the two genera. There is a 
striking affinity on the one hand between some species of Ibis 
and Numenius , and on the other between the smaller Numenii 
and Tringae with slightly curved bills, such as Tringa subarquata, 
and also those with semipalmated feet, but especially when they 
combine both these characters, as our new Tringa himantopus. In 
their own very natural family, the Curlews are more immediately 
related to Tringa and Limosa , both in aspect and manners. The 
genus Scolopax we do not consider as approaching them within 
several degrees. 
Cuvier had attempted to divide this genus into two independent 
subgenera, but unsuccessfully, and they must be relinquished 
even as sections, inasmuch as the characters on which they are 
based have no existence in nature, as he has since virtually 
acknowledged by omitting all mention of the group Phseopus in 
his new edition of the Regne Jlnimal. This is in fact one of those 
very natural small genera which do not admit even of well based 
sections. If the species were numerous, we might perhaps divide 
them into those with white rumps, and those which have no white 
on that part, or into those showing the crown of the head marked 
a central line, and those without this line. There being however 
but few species, we consider it to be more philosophical to view 
them as an undivided genus, beginning with the larger and ending 
with the smaller species : but at all events the marks we have 
indicated, (of the head and croupe,) together with those of the 
under wing-coverts and long axillary feathers, furnish us with 
what we have called the clue of the genus. For example, the 
