18 BULLETIN 50, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



hrse, none; ribs articulating with sternum, 15-16; coracoids slightly 

 overlapping at their external articulation; metasternum 4-notched; 

 hallux absent; thigh-muscle formula, ABXY + or BXY + ; caudo- 

 ilio-f emoralis muscle with iliac head present {(Edicnemus superciliaris 

 and CE. histriatus) or absent (in genus BurTiinus) ; propatagialis 

 longus muscle present; nasal glands small or large; nares impervious; 

 pterylosis essentially charadriine; aftershaft present; oil gland tufted; 

 powder-downs absent; fifth remex ahsent (aquincubital) . 



The CEdicnemi present points of relationship with the Otides (Bus- 

 tards), with which they agree in their holorhinal nostrils, but from 

 which they differ in the following characters : 



CEdicnemi. Otides. 



Dorsal vertebrae opisthocoelous. heterocoelous. 



Nares impervious. pervious. 



Oil gland present. absent. 



Nasal glands large. small. 



Propatagialis longus muscle present. absent. 



Caudo-ilio-femoralis muscle with iliac head usiuitly present. absent. 



Digestive system Charadriine. Gruine. 



From the Charadrii the CEdicnemi differ in absence of basiptery- 

 goid processes and occipital foramina, holorhinal nostrils, and over- 

 lapping coracoids. 



Family (EDICNEMID^. 



THE THICK-KNEES. 



=(Edicneminse Gray, List Gen. Birds, 1840, 64. 



=CEdicnemidx Sclater and Sa^lvin, Nom. Av. Neotr., 1873, viii, 142. — Sclater, 

 Ibis, 1880, 408. — Baird, Brewer, and Ridgway, Water Birds N. Am., i, 

 1884, 108.— Stejneger, Standard Nat. Hist., iv, 1885, 112, in text.— Sharpe, 

 Cat. Birds Brit. Mus., xxiv, 1896, ix, 2; Hand-list, i, 1899, xvi, 172.— Bed- 

 dard, Struct, and Classif. Birds, 1898, 345. — Salvin and Godman, Biol. 

 Centr.-Am., Aves, iii, 1903, 338.— Knowlton, Birds of the World, 1909, 49,. 

 380. 



=CEdicnemidae Fxjrbringer, Unters. Morph. Syst. Vog., ii, 1888, 1223. 



=(Edicnemididae Gadow, Classif. Vertebr., 1898, 35. 



^^Burhinidse Mathews, Bii'ds of Australia, iii, pt. 4, Dec. 31, 1913, 342. 



Genus CEDICNEMUS Temminck. 



(Edicnemus Temminck, Man. d' Orn., 1815, 321. (Type, by tautonymy, Char- 



adrius oedtcnemus Linnaeus.) 

 Fedoa Leach, Syst. Cat. Mam. and Birds Brit. Mus., 1816, 2S. (Type, Chara- 



drius cedicnemus Linnaeus.) 



• 



Very large terrestrial Limicolse (wing 205-273 in American species) 

 with nostril in anterior portion of the broad nasal fossae, tarsus 

 two and a half to nearly three times as long as middle toe without 

 claw and covered all round with hexagonal scales, hallux absent, tail 

 half as long as wing and graduated, and the plumage conspicuously 

 streaked with pale buffy brown and dusky. 



