A Manual of Philippine Birds - Richard C. McGregor

Family CHARADRIIDÆ.

Bill slender, in some very long, straight, occasionally gently curved; tail short and nearly square; legs moderately long to very long; plumage (except in Rostratula) white, gray, and brown, occasionally black and reddish. This family includes all the stilts, curlews, godwits, snipes, sandpipers, and plovers.

Subfamilies.

a¹. Toes not laterally scalloped; no serrated edge on back of tarsus.
- b¹. Tarsus more than twice as long as middle toe with claw; naked portion of thigh much longer than middle toe with claw. Himantopodinæ (p. [113])
- b². Tarsus less than twice as long as middle toe with claw; naked portion of thigh much shorter than middle toe with claw.
  - c¹. Culmen with a decided dertrum or arched swelling at tip; tarsus reticulate behind.
    - d¹. A small fleshy wattle in front of eye; front of tarsus covered with large transverse scales. Lobivanellinæ (p. [101])
    - d². No eye wattle present; tarsus covered with small hexagonal scales. Charadriinæ (p. [102])
  - c². Culmen without a dertrum at tip.
    - d¹. Tarsus with transverse plates in front and hexagonal scales behind; bill short, less than head; culmen nearly straight. Arenariinæ (p. [99])
    - d². Tarsus with transverse plates both before and behind (except Numenius which has a long decurved bill); bill usually much longer than head, either straight or curved, the tip usually soft.
a². Toes with lateral lobes; tarsus with the posterior edge serrated. Phalaropodinæ (p. [149])

Subfamily ARENARIINÆ.

Genus ARENARIA Brisson, 1760.

Bill pointed, culmen straight and flattened for basal half; nostril linear, situated in a groove which extends half the length of bill; wing long and pointed; first primary decidedly longest; tarsus short with transverse plates in front and hexagonal scales behind; toes without webs; hind toe present.

88. ARENARIA INTERPRES (Linnæus).

TURNSTONE.

Tringa interpres Linnæus, Syst. Nat. ed. 10 (1758), 1, 148.
Arenaria interpres Sharpe, Cat. Birds Brit. Mus. (1896), 24, 92; Hand-List (1899), 1, 146; Oates, Cat. Birds’ Eggs (1902), 2, 3; McGregor and Worcester, Hand-List (1906), 22.
Strepsilas interpres Blanford, Fauna Brit. Ind. Bds. (1898), 4, 223, fig. 50 (head).