Color Key to North American Birds Part 4

(7 families, 55 species, 4 subspecies.)

Generally long-legged, slender-billed birds of sh.o.r.es and mud flats, and sometimes fields. Most of them are under a foot in length; none are so large as the Ibises; wings long and pointed; tail short; toes long and slender, usually without webs; color generally brown or blackish above, mottled and streaked with whitish and buff. Many species utter characteristic piping whistles as they fly or when they take wing.

[Ill.u.s.tration: NORTHERN PHALAROPE.]

Family 24. PHALAROPES. Phalaropodidae.

Front toes with lobes or webs; tarsus flattened; plumage thick; swimming Snipe.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AMERICAN AVOCET.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BLACK-NECKED STILT.]

Family 25. AVOCETS AND STILTS. Recurvirostridae.

Long legged, wading Snipe; in Avocets toes four, front three webbed; bill recurved; in Stilts toes three, almost unwebbed; bill straight.

[Ill.u.s.tration: SEMIPALMATED SANDPIPER.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: WOODc.o.c.k.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: HUDSONIAN CURLEW.]

Family 26. SNIPES, SANDPIPERS, CURLEWS, ETC. Scolopacidae.

Toes usually four; tarsus with transverse scales; bill generally long, slender, and soft, used as a probe.

[Ill.u.s.tration: KILLDEER.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER.]

Family 27. PLOVERS. Charadriidae.

Toes usually three, or when four, the fourth rudimentary; tarsus with rounded scales, bill, as compared with that of Snipe, short and stout.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TURNSTONE.]

Family 28. SURF BIRDS AND TURNSTONES. Aphrizidae.

Toes four, tarsus with transverse scales; bill short, rather hard.

[Ill.u.s.tration: AMERICAN OYSTER-CATCHER.]

Family 29. OYSTER-CATCHERS. Haematopodidae.

Toes three, webbed at base; tarsus stout, with rounded scales; bill heavy, compressed, and said to be used for opening sh.e.l.ls.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MEXICAN JACANA.]

Family 30. JACANAS. Jacanidae.

Toes four, with their nails greatly elongated to support the bird while walking on aquatic vegetation; wing, with a sharp spur; bill with fleshy lobes at base and, in some species, on its sides.

LAND BIRDS.

Order X. Grouse, Partridges, Bob-Whites, Etc. GALLIN?.

(3 families, 24 species, 25 subspecies.)

Ground-inhabiting birds of chicken-like form; bill stout, hen-like; wings short and rounded; tail variable; feet strong; hind-toe elevated. Color usually mixed brown, black, and buff, or bluish gray.

[Ill.u.s.tration: BOB-WHITE.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: RUFFED GROUSE.]

Family 31. GROUSE, PARTRIDGES, ETC. Tetraonidae.

Characters the same as those of the Order; tarsus naked in Partridges and Quails; more or less feathered in Grouse and Ptarmigan.

[Ill.u.s.tration: TURKEY.]

Family 32. TURKEYS, PHEASANTS, AND CHICKENS. Phasianidae.

Tarsus naked, often spurred, tail remarkably variable (for example, Turkey, Peac.o.c.k); head often with a comb, wattles, or other excrescences.

[Ill.u.s.tration: CHACHALACA.]

Family 33. CURa.s.sOWS AND GUANS. Cracidae.

Large tree-haunting, pheasant-like birds; toes four, all on same level.