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 LAND—BIRDS.

which are never longer than the head. In size they vary from small to medium (7 to 12 inches); the plumage undergoes many variations owing to season and age, but the sexes are nearly alike. The neck is short, the head bulletshaped, and the body usually stout; the wings are longer than the tail. They are generally seen in ﬂocks during the migrations, as the majority of species breed far north. They ﬂy and run with great rapidity, and inhabit dry uplands, as well as the vicinity of ponds, and the seashore. They all have pleasing call notes, and one species has a melodious, piping whistle.

Family Scolopacida: Sandpipers, Snipes, etc. Page 236. 1] Species.

Another large family, inhabiting inland meadows as well as salt marshes and the seashore, including Wood- cock and Snipe, both well-known Game~birds (that probe for their food in the mud with their bills), and the less familiar Sandpipers. Bills not Pigeon-shaped; slender, usu- ally longer than the head. Plumage mottled and streaked with neutral tints and sober colours. Voices peculiar, vary- ing according to the species.

Snipe are among the most delicately ﬂavoured of Game- birds, and Sandpipers comprise the smallest of the Waders. The Snipe group may be easily distinguished from the rest by the plain, unbarred tail. The Tattlers are a long- legged, noisy species, not probing for their food in the mud, but picking it up in the vicinity of ﬂats and sand bars.

ORDER PALUDICOLE: RAILS, GALLINULEB, COOTS. Family Ralﬂdm: Rails. Page 245. 5 Species. “Birds of medium and small size, generally with com- pressed body and large, strong legs, enabling them to run rapidly and thread with ease the mazes of the reedy

marshes to which they are almost exclusively conﬁned; while, by means of their long toes, they are prevented from 61