often seen, starting up from before the sportsman’s feet much in
the maimer of that bird.
The family to which this bird belongs has been admitted by
all authors, under various names, and comprehending more or
less aberrant genera.. It was first. established by Illigeiy but he
excluded from it those which by an unimportant deviation are
destitute of a hind toe, which he' placed in his artificial family
of Littorales, while he mcladed in it sOtee ttue Charadridee oil
account of the presence of a rudiment of this member. Vieillot
took the same view, calling, the two artificial families Helionomi,
and Mgialites; as did Ranzani and Savi under the names of
Limicole and Tachidrome ; and Mr. Vigors erred in like manner
b’y distributing the genera between his too extensive families
of Charadriadse and Scolopacidae. The arrangement of Cuvier and
Latreille is* in this instance much more consonant to fiature:
these authors called their better composed, though still far from
perfect family, Longirostres.
This family, which we shall «all Limicolee or Scolopacidae, is
strictly natural, especially since we have still farther reformed it
by withdrawing the genus Himantopus, With which we had encumbered
it in our Synopsis. The family now comprises the six
genera Numenius, Tringa, Totanus, Limosa, Scolopax, and Shynchaea,
all possessing the most marked affinity in form and habits.
The Scolopacidae have either a moderate or generally a long
billvsIeMer^ feeble, and extremely soft, being partially or entirely
v^Ve#ed:with a nervous and sensitive skin: it is nearly cylindrical,
and mostly obtuse at the point; Their face is completely feathered
» and their neck of a moderate length and size. The feet,
though rather long, are moderate and quite slender; the tarsus is
scutellated: • but the'* chief character which,. combined with the
bill, will always distinguish them from the allied families, consists
in the hind toe, which is short, slender, articulated high up on the
tarsus, and'the .tip hardly „touching -the ground: in* some quite
typical species this to | fe entirely wanting, and this lao£ „corroborates
what we JhaVe^ so often r;e>pNtUted- in writings, Ihat the
mode of insertion, pr«|||e%liande of this .toe i&sf m&Be Importance
than-its beii^ptfesint or present.. In* all tjh<f Litmcolsq the wings
arh élongafcdjf„falciform, acute-afijd tubfroulatedli „ U9-d, the tail
rathetshorfe-.,
- cThe- females-are generally than 'the mal$f, .bait luokily
fob naturalists, similar fq iherti Ij^icy l u c k i l y j s s
t t e young differ greatly fc>m ,the iad%lt£,. and as which
takes place twicé -a ye ar additional ©hinges; in ’the
confused plumage of m o st’of theses birds,fseinal,diversity, if It
existed, would tender thefsp^djes- still more difficult to determine.
All the Scolopacidae inhabit marshy, mqddy place's, and: around
w a te rs; and never alight On’\|l%e's!. On vtjfte ^gr-oundwiftay run
swr&ly. T heir food 'winsikts idsects, Worms, molluèca# and
other*'aquatic animals, which they seek- in^thef mud* fpeli^g' and
Sfffewing where to Seize’tf e ir' prey Without •itrby meÉhte; d f
th e delicacy óf touch óf theüb bill. They are monogamous;
breed on the gbbund in grass^ mar^Ibs, or on. the sa n d ; and’ lay
mostly folir pyrifordl eggs*, Both parents* sitting upon ^he.m and
afterwards attending their .yntn/g with c&re, 'though these la tte r
leave the nest*run about, and- pick up fcod feM d P # s - ‘hatched.
All these habits êontrast’ èjrohgl^ with those of the Ibis, which
can oitly ho forded into this family Óm account of the Softness. Of
the bill, and its great similarity' to th a t of thé Curiew-s.
Our genus Tringa is „much mobê, extensive than that-of most
modern, though much, less 'sp than that of former Writers, for we
arrange in it all the Scolopacidae, whose bill, short, op,moderately
so, straight, or slightly cforvèdi is soft or flexible: for rts; whole
lehgth, and with the point smooth, <H|jpressed, somèwhat dilated
and obtuse; not taking into consideration the feet, especially the
vol. rv.—->i