Color Key to North American Birds - BestLightNovel.com
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(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.
