764 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. — LIMICOLjE. 



bellied Plover, have a range almost conterminous with that of the order to which they belong, 

 and many others perform annual migrations of extraordinary extent. 



No division of the order into suborders has been established. We pass at once to its 

 families, most of which are well represented in North America, and will be found fully char- 

 acterized beyond. Before taking these up, it will assist the student to note briefly certain 

 outlying or inosculated groups of limicoliue affinities, as well as the exotic families which cer- 

 tainly belong to Limicolce. 



1. Of prime importance in this connection is the Bustard family, Otidid«, which connects the Limicoline and Palu- 

 dicoline orders so perfectly that its position in the system has long wavered between the two, and been compromised by 

 the erection of these birds into a separate order Otides. Tlieir affinity with the former, tlirough the family (Edicnemidrp, 

 is so close that the Stone Curlew, (Edicneimis crepitans, has been called Thick-Kneed Bustard ; but the balance of evi- 

 dence favors their reference to the PaludicoUe (which see, beyond). 



2. In speaking of some iuosculant groups between Galliiwe and Limicolce (p. 719), I had occasion to remark upon 

 the TuRNiciD^, or family of the Bustard-Quails or " Button-Quails " as they are indifferently called, as forming a separate 

 order Ilemipodii, Turnicei! or Turnicomorphce. This group consists of the 4-toed Pedionomus of Australia, and the 

 3-toed species of Tvrnix or Hemipodius ; the latter is quintocubital, the former aquintocubital. Both have 12 rectrices, 

 aftershafted plumage, tufted oil-gland, long coeca, and a gall-bladder ; sternum single-notched ; cervical vertebrae 15 ; 

 palate incompletely aegithognathous : nasal bones schizorhinal, basipterygoids present. The single anomalous genus 

 and species, Ortyxelus rneiffreni, is brought under Liiaicolce, as a member of the family Cursoriidce, by late authority 

 (Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv, 1S9G, p. 20 and p. 30) ; but this case is still unsettled. 



Regarding the following exotic families, there seems to be no longer any doubt that they are true components of the 

 Limicolce as above defined : — 



3. Thihooortthid.5;. The curious little birds of this family, confined to South America and represented by the two 

 genera Thinocorys and Atlagis, resemble Quails or Partridges in superficial appearance, but have the flight and general 

 habits of Shore birds. The bill is as in gallinaceous birds, and there is a globular crop like that of ordinary poultry. 

 There are four toes, with rudimentary and interdigital web, and the tarsus is reticulate ; the short tail is held downward, 

 as usual with Quails — not straight out behind, as usual with limicoline birds. Among anatomical characters may be 

 noted the shizognathous (aegithognathous) palate, with a vomer broadly rounded in front; pseudo-holorhinal nasals; 

 absence of basipterygoid processes and occipital foramina ; superorbital fossae ; presence of ambiens, femorocaudal, semi- 

 tendinosus, and the accessories of both these last muscles ; and two carotids. I suspect a closer relationship than is 

 generally conceded of these " Lark-partridges," as they are generally called, with the Hemipodes. The species are very 

 few — Attagis gciyi, A. chimborazensis, A. mcdouinus, Thinocorys rumicivorus, and T. orbignycmus. 



4. ChionididjE. The remarkable Sheath-Bills are snow-white birds, of about the size and somewhat resembling 

 Pigeons, or Ptarmigan in winter. The base of the bill is covered with a separate horny case, unlike anything seen in 

 other limicoline birds. In one of the genera, Chionis, the sheath is fiat, something like the " cere " of a Skua ; in the 

 other, Chionarchus, the sheath rides up in front, like the pommel of a saddle, with a round hole for the nostrils ; it thus 

 resembles the nasal tube of a Petrel. The face is carunculate. The wing has a carpal spur. The feet are 4-toed, with re- 

 ticulate tarsi, and basal webbing between the outer and middle toes. The nasals are pseudo-holorhinal ; the palate is schi- 

 zognathous ; there are superorbital fossae, but no basipterygoids nor occipital foramina. These birds form the superfamily 

 Chionomorphce of Kidder and Cones. The relationships are close with the ThinocoryihicUe, probably still closer with 

 the Hcematopodida;. These birds live on the seashore, feed on seaweed, molluscs, crustaceans, and birds' eggs, and lay 

 two or three colored eggs among rocks. The common Kelp-pigeon, or Sore-eyed Pigeon of the sailors, is Chionis alba 

 of the Falklands and adjacent mainland ; the smaller Saddle-bill, Chionarchus minor, inhabits Kerguelen and some other 

 islands, while C. crozettensis is found on those whence it takes name. 



5. DromadiDjE. This isolated family consists of Dromcis ardeola, the so-called Crab-plover of wide distribution in 

 Asia and Africa, whose place in the system has been disputed witli needless vehemence. Tliough it has been placed now 

 with the Terns, now with Herons, now in some other association, it is a limicoline bird belonging in the vicinity of the 

 Thick-Knees and Coursers (to be presently noted). It is not exactly pluvialine ; but " tlie possibility of its being with 

 Chionis, a surviving link between the Charadriidce and Laridce is very great" (Newton, Diet., p. 109). The feet are 

 4-toed, and the anterior digits are extensively palmate — about as in the Tern genus Jlydrochelidon, or nearly as in an 

 Avoset ; the tarsi are scuteliate ; the middle claw is pectinate, or rather jagged, on the imier edge, strikingly like that 

 of the Coursers. The long, straight, hard, trenchant bill with its long gonys and correspondingly short mandibular 

 rami, recalls that of an Oystercatcher ; the nostrils also open directly in the hard sheath of the bill, having no nasal 

 scale. The wings are long, and the tail is short. The coloration is chiefly black and white, and there are long plumes 

 on the back as in Herons. The bird is remarkable, among all its relatives, in breeding in burrows and laying white 

 eggs. 



C. Glareolid.*;. The Glareoles or Pratincoles are a remarkable Old-world family, thoroughly limicoline and in fact 

 closely related to the Coursers, yet of strange superficial appearance, like long-legged Swallows, with the bill of a 

 Cuckoo ; the tail is long and deeply forked, even to be called forficate, like a Barn Swallow's, in Glareola proper, 

 though shorter and simply emarginate in the genus Galachrysia ; the wings are long, or extremely long, and sharp 

 pointed ; the tarsus is scuteliate before and behind, short (for a wader) in Glareola, very long in Stiltia ; the hind toe is 

 present ; the middle claw is denticulate or jagged. The bill is short, compressed, and somewhat decurved at the tip, 

 with a wide deep cleft in fissirostral style. Such a combination of external characters could not fail to set some orni- 



