BIRDS OF NORTH AND MIDDLE AMERICA, 69 



V[anellus] cristatus Keyserling and Blasius, Wirb. Eur., 1840, pp. Ixix, 207. — 



Gray, Gen Birds, iii, 1847, 541.— Coues, Key N. Am. Birds, 2d ed., 1884, 



G05. 

 [Vanellus] cristatus Gray, Hand-list, iii, 1871, 10, no. 9950. — Coues, Key N. 



Am. Birds, 1872, 243. 

 Vanellus gavia Leach, Syst. Cat. Mam., etc., Brit. Mus., 181G, 29 (Wiltshire, 



England).— Stephens, Shaw's Gen. Zool., xi, pt. 2, 1819, 211. 

 [Vanellus] gavia Lichte.vstein, Nomencl. Av. Mus. Berol., 1854, 95 (Xubia). 

 Vanellus bicornis Brehm, Vog. Deutschl., 1831, 557 (middle Germany). 

 Charadr[ius] vanellus candidus Naumann (J. F.), Vog. Deutschl., vii, 1834, 27G 



(color variety). 

 Char[adrius] van[ellus] pallidus Naumann (J. F.), Vog. Deutschl., vii, 1834, 



276 (color variety). 

 Char[adrius] vanlellus] varitcs Xaumann (J. F.), Vog. Deutschl., vii, 1834, 270 



(color variety). 

 Vanellus cristatus coinmu7iis Breuu (A. E.), Verz. Samml. C. L. Brehm, 18G6, 11. 



Genus HOPLOXYPTE RUS Bonaparte. 



Iloploxypterus Bonaparte, Compt. Rend., xliii, 185G, 418. (Type, by mono- 

 typy, Charadrius cay anus Latham.) 



Medium-sized Charadriidre (wing 132-150 mm.) with small but 

 distinct metacarpal spur; tail nearly half as long as wing; longest 

 primaries exceeding distal secondaries by less than half the length 

 of wing; plumage pied (black, white, and brownish gray). 



Bill shorter than head, rather stout, the exposed culmen about as 

 long as middle toe with claw, its distal third strongly arched; gonys 

 faintly to moderately convex, not prominent basall}-; broad nasal 

 groove extending about two-thirds the length of maxilla. Wing 

 moderate, the longest primary (outermost) exceeding distal sec- 

 ondaries by a little less than half the length of wing, scarcely, if at 

 all, extending beyond tips of longest tertials; a distinct though small 

 metacarpal spur. Tail nearly half as long as wing, truncated, the 

 rectrices broad and rounded at tips. Tarsus slender, nearly one- 

 third as long as wing, covered laterally with small hexagonal scales, 

 the planta tarsi with indistinct transverse scutella, the acrotarsium 

 practically ocreate; middle toe, with claw, less than half as long as 

 tarsus, the outer and inner toes, successively, decidedly shorter; 

 hallux absent; a very small web between outer and middle toes, the 

 space l)etween inner and middle toes practically cleft to base; bare 

 portion of tibia longer than middle toe with claw. 



Coloration. — Above black, white and brownish gray (forehead^ 

 hindneck, and scapulars black), beneath white with a black jugular 

 band. 



Range. — Tropical South America ; Honduras? (Monotypic.) 



