768 SYSTEMATIC SYNOPSIS. —LIMICOL^. 



with a convex horny terminal portion, or dertruin, contracted behind this ; nasal fossae rather 

 short and wide, filled with soft skin in which the nostrils open as a slit, not basal, and per- 

 forate. Gape very short, reaching little beyond base of culmen. Wings long and pointed, 

 reaching, when folded, to or beyond end of tail, and sometimes spurred; crissal feathers long 

 and full; tail short, generally nearly even and of 12 feathers. Body plump (neither depressed 

 as in Avocets and Phalaropes, nor compressed as in R.iils) ; neck short and thick ; head large, 

 globose, sloping rapidly to the small base of bill, usually fully feathered, sometimes caruncu- 

 late or wattled. Size moderate or small. The foot rule for Plovers is, reticulate tarsi and 3 

 toes, as against the rule of scutellate tarsi and 4 toes in Scolopacine birds ; but there are many 

 exceptions to this, especially among the Plovers, which have the head crested or wattled and 

 the wings spurred ; in which all these variable features are variously combined, affording good 

 generic characters, but not to be overestimated as affording any basis for their separation from 

 other Cliaradriince. 



Our species are very closely related, and will be readily recognized by the foregoing char- 

 acters. There are about 75 species of all countries. The most singular of them all is the 

 Wrybill or Crook-billed Plover of New Zealand, Anarhynclius frontalis, in which the bill is 

 bent sideways. Tliough thus anomalous in the whtde class Ares, this bird is in other respects 

 a plain Plover, with a little suspicion of a Turnstone. (The rare Pluvianellus sociahilis of 

 Patagonia is m<jre decidedly like a Turnstone, with its very short tarsi, and peculiar bill ; 

 this should be removed from the present subfamily to the Ai-enarimce.) The Chilian Oreo- 

 philus ruficollis (or Totamrostris) has scutellate tarsi and a very slender, long-grooved bill, 

 like a Tattler's ; but it is otherwise an ordinary 3-toed Plover, coming near the Dotterels. 

 Thinornis novce-zealandice is likewise a slender-billed true Plover. Peltohi/as australis of Aus- 

 tralia has been needlessly made type of a different subfamily on account of its scutellate tarsi in 

 connection with 3 toes. Erythrogonys cinctus of the same country and the two African species 

 of Defilippia are 4-toed. They introduce us to the interesting group of genera (sometimes 

 associated as a subfamily Lohivanellince) which have 3 or 4 toes, with or without wattles and 

 wing-spurs, and only agree in the scutellation instead of reticulation of the tai'si. Thus, 

 Sarciophorus tedus of Africa is 3-toed, crested, wattled, and spurless ; Lobipluvia malaharica 

 is 3-toed, wattled, crestless, and spurless; Microsarcops cinereus of Asia is 4-toed, wattled, 

 crestlesR, and spurless ; Hoploxypterus cayanus and Ptiloscelis resplendens, both of South 

 America, are 3-toed, spurred, and crestless ; while the species of the genus commonly called 

 Lohivanellus, of wide distribution in the Old World, are 4-toed, spurred, and wattled, such 

 being L. lobatus, L. miles, L. senegalus, and L. lateralis. In this last genus the spurs and 

 wattles are highly developed, the spurs being as large and sharp as in Jacanas ; but in the 

 whole series of genera the condition of these appendages varies much, the spur being reduced 

 in some to a mere knot, and the wattles being also in some cases rudimentary. Passing from 

 these, which agree in scutellation of the tarsi, we come to other genera in which the tarsi are 

 reticulate, according to the foot-rule for Plovers, yet in which we find the same curious changes 

 rung upon the hind toe, wattles, and spurs. Thus, Xiphidiopterus alhicei^s is 3-toed, with large 

 spurs and wattles ; Sarcogrammus indicus and Tylihyx melanoceiihalus are 4-toed, wattled, 

 and spurless; Zonifer tricolor of Australia, and Anomalophrys superciliosus of Africa are 

 3-toed, wattled, and spurless ; the three species of Hoplopterus, H. spinosus, H. rentraUs, and 

 H. speciosus are 3-toed, crested, and sharply spurred, but not wattled ; the two American spe- 

 cies oi Belonopterus, B. cayennensis and B. chilensis, are 4-toed, crested, bluntly si)urred, and 

 without wattles. Thus the development of spurs and wattles is by no means concomitant, nor 

 is either correlated with a hind toe or a crest. None of the following have eitlier spurs or 

 wattles : Vanellus is 4-toed and crested ; Eurypterus, Chrstusia, Zonibyx, and Squatarola are 

 4-toed and crestless. All other Cliaradriince conform to the norm for this subfamily, which is, 

 to have 3 toes, reticulate tarsi, no crest, and no spurs. Our species are found along the sea- 



