CHAEADEIIDJE — CHABADRIINJE . PLOVER. 



697 



inosculating families in the vicinity of Limicola and Alectorides, of uncertain position. The 

 largest of these is the Bustard family, OtididcB, which connects Limicola and Alectorides so 

 perfectly, that its position has long wavered hetween these two orders ; the balance of evidence 

 favors its reference to the latter. The typical families are Charadriidw and Scolopacidce. 



38. Family CHARADRIID.^ : Plover. 



This is a large and impor- 

 tant family of nearly a hun- 

 dred species, of all parts of 

 the worlck Its limits are not 

 settled, there being a few 

 forms sometimes referred here, 

 sometimes made the types of 

 distinct families. The Glare- 

 oles (Glareolidce) are a re- 

 markable Old "World form, 

 like long-legged swallows, 

 with a cuckoo's bill ; the tail 

 is forked; there are four toes; 

 the wings are extremely long 

 and pointed ; the tarsi are 

 scutellate; the middle claw 

 denticulate. The Coursers 

 (Cursoriince) are another Old 



World type, near the Bus- 

 Fig. 415.- A Plover, the European Lapwing, re.lucca, (From Dixon.) ^^rds, of one or two genera 



and less than ten species. In both of these the gape of the mouth i.s longer than in the true 

 plovers ; the hind toe, as usual for this family, is absent in the Coursers. The thick-knees, 

 {(EdicnemincB) are more plover-like birds, with one exception belonging to the Old World, 

 comprising about eight species of the genera (Edicmmus a,nd Esacus ; they are related to 

 the Bustards, and most pluvialine birds appear to fall in the 



54. Subfamily CHARADRIIN/E: True Plover. 



Toes generally three, the hinder absent (excepting, among our forms, Squatarola, Vanellus, 

 and Aphrisa) ; tarsus reticulate, longer than the middle toe ; toes vinth a basal web (cleft in 

 Aphrizd) ; tibiae naked below. Bill of moderate length, much shorter or not longer than the 

 head, shaped somewhat like that of a Pigeon, with a convex horny terminal portion, con- 

 tracted behind this ; the nasal fossae rather short and wide, filled with soft skin in which the 

 nostrils open as a slit, not basal, and perforate. Gape very short, reaching a little beyond base 

 of culmen. Wings long and pointed, reaching, Avhen folded, to or beyond the end of the tail, 

 and sometimes spurred ; crissal feathers long and full; tail short, generally nearly even and of 

 12 feathers; body plump; neck short and thick; head large, globose, sloping rapidly to the 

 small base of the bill, usually fully feathered. Size moderate or small. 



Our species (excepting Aphriza, if really belonging here) are very closely related, and will 

 be readily recognized by the foregoing characters. There are in all perhaps sixty species. 

 The most singular of them is the Anarhynchus frontalis, in which the bill is bent sideways. 

 Thinornis zelandice of New Zealand, Phegornis mitchelU and Oreophilus iotanirostris of Chili, 

 iire peculiar forms. Species of Chettusia, Lobimnellus and Hoplopterus have fleshy wattles, 

 or a tubercle, often developed into a spine, on the wing, or both ; some of these, and others. 



