PLOVER ^2,l 



colour is relieved by markings of black and wliite.^ This probablj'^ 

 belongs to the small section generally known as Coursers, Cursorius, 

 allied to which are the curious Pratincoles, also peculiar to the 

 Old World, while the genera Thinocorys and Attagis form an outlying 

 group peculiar to South America, that is by some systematists 

 regarded as a separate Family " Thinocoridx" near which are often 

 placed the singular Sheathbills. By most authorities the Stone- 

 Curlews, the Oyster-catchers and Turnstones are also re- 

 garded as belonging to the Family Charadriidx, and some would 

 add the Avosets and Stilts, among which the Crab-Plover or 

 " Cavalier," Dromas ardeola — a form that has been bandied about 

 from one Family and even Order to another — should possibly find 

 its place. 



Though the various forms here spoken of as Plovers are closely 

 allied, they must be regarded as constituting a somewhat indefinite 

 group, for no very strong line of demarcation can be drawn be- 

 tween them and the Sandpipers and Snipes, United, however, 

 with both of the latter, under the name of LiMicoL^:, after the 

 method approved by recent systematists, the whole form an 

 assemblage the compactness of which no observant ornithologist 

 can hesitate to admit, even if he be not inclined to treat as its 

 nearest relations the Bustards on the one hand and the " Gavi^ " 

 on the other. "-^ 



1 The elder Geofl'roy-St. Hilaire (J/e'm. du Mas. xv. pp. 466, 467) in 1827 

 was apparently the ftrst to identify this bird with the rpoxiXos of Herodotus {cf. 

 HuMJilNG-BiKD, p. 442, note 2), and did so from having actually seen it enter 

 the Crocodile's mouth, while his testimony is confirmed by the ex])erienee of 

 Dr. A. E. Brehui, who says {Thierleben, Vogel, ed. 2, iii. p. 216) that he had 

 repeatedly seen it thus act. In the face of the positive assurance of two such com- 

 petent witnesses it would be rash to conclude that another observer, who seems 

 to be no ornithologist, is right in attributing (Ibis, 1893, p. 277) the part of the 

 "Crocodile-bird" to HopJopterus spinosus (Lapwing), though Dr. A. L. Adams 

 (Ibis, 1864, p. 29) and Mr. A. C. Smith (Attractions of the Nile, ii. pp. 255, 

 256) — neither of whom had witnessed the feat — had already made the same 

 suggestion. However, other ornithological observers of equal, if not greater 

 repute, such as Mr. E. C. Taylor (Ibis, 1859, p. 52 ; 1867, p. 68), Von Heuglin 

 (Orn. Nord-ost Afrikas, pp. 978, 979), and M. d'Aubussou (Echassiers d'Egyptc, 

 pp. 16-18), without professing personal expei'ience, hold to Pluvianus rather 

 than Hoplopterus being the reptile's benefactor, and so the matter must be left, 

 though the balance of scientific opinion is sufficiently declared. 



- In this connexion it is necessary to mention Mr. Seebohm's lavishly illus- 

 trated Geographical Distribution of the Family Charadriidse (4 to, London: without 

 date, but published in 1887), under which term he comprises all the ordinary 

 Plovers, Sandpipers and Snipes, but excludes Attagis, Chionis, Dromas and 

 Thinocorys. It would be out of place here to dwell upon his speculations, and 

 it is enough to state his arrangement of the forms he includes. Professing to 

 despise "structural characters," upon them he yet chiefly grounds nearly all 

 his groups, but chooses characters which most taxonomers regard as of minor 



