Official Organ of the Royal Australasian Ornithologists' Union. 



" Birds of 21 fezvthcr.' 



Vol. XV.] ist JULY, 191 5. [Part i. 



On the Comparative Osteology of Orthorhamphus 



magnirostris (the Long'billed Stone^PIover). 



i-5v i)K. R. W. Shufeldt, F.A.O.U., Hon. Mem])er R.A.O.U., 

 C.M.Z.S., &c., Washington, D.C. 



This great Plover-like bird is known in Australia as the Long- 

 billed Stone-Curlew, being carried on the Check-list of the Royal 

 Australasian Ornithologists' Union as Esacus magnirostris, where 

 its range is stated to be " North- Western Australia, Northern 

 Territory, and North Queensland." It is further known to occur, 

 according to Sharpe (" Hand-list of Birds," vol. !., p. 173), in 

 the " Bismarck Archipelago, and north to Borneo and islands 

 of Bay of Bengal." This author, in the work cited, recognizes 

 seven sub-orders as composing his Order (XV.) Chakadriiformes, 

 a group containing all the true limicoline birds, with a number of 

 their congeners, as the Otididce and others. 



Sub-order VI. is created to contain the OEdicnemi, or the Thick- 

 kneed Plovers, which are arrayed under four genera — namely, 

 (Edicnemus, Burhinus, Esacus, and Orthorhamphus. Of all these, 

 only two species occur on the Australian continent, and these 

 are Burhinus grallarius and the subject of the present paper. In 

 the R.A.O.U. " Check-hst," the former species is listed as (Edicnemus 

 grallarius, and is known as the Southern Stone-Curlew.* 



The principal writers on the birds so far mentioned have been 

 Linnaeus, Temminck (the genus (Edicnemus), lUiger (the genus 

 Burhinus), Lesson (the genus Esacus), Salvador! (the genus 

 Orthorhamphus), and some twelve other ornithologists who have 

 described species included in these four genera. Sharpe includes 

 them all in the family (Edicnemida, which is doubtless quite a 

 natural group. 



As belonging in this group, Lydekker describes the extinct 

 fossil form Milnea gracilis, from the Lower Miocene of France 



* Gould, "Birds of Australia," vi., Plate V'.; Handbook, ii., p. 210. 

 Plate VI. of this work is devoted to Orthorhamphus magnirostris, but it is, 

 in my judgment, not a particularly good figure, and I have compared it 

 with a number of fine skins of the species in the collection of the U.S. 

 National Museum. These were placed before me by Mr. J. H. Riley, of 

 the Division of Birds of that institution, to whom I am likewise indebted 

 for favours in connection with attending to my needs with respect to the 

 skeletons selected for comparison. 



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