THE THICK-KNEES. I 27 



(Ali//iefn'us), but they are generally known by this title, and so 

 I retain it. 



Like the Bustards, the Thick-knees have a schizorhinal palate 

 and holorhinal nostril, and share with them another point, viz., 

 tlie absence of the hind-toe, or hallux. There are, however, 

 many anatomical characters in which the two groups differ, 

 and in many of these the Thick-knees show relationship with 

 the Plovers. In habits they are Bustard-like in many respects, 

 but their eggs are more like those of the Plovers, and they 

 never make any nest. 



There are four genera of Thick-knees, of which Bur/ii/ms, 

 Esaciis, and Orthorhamphus are Indian and Australian, while 

 the genus GLdioienius is found all over the temperate parts of 

 the Pal^arctic Region, and extends throughout Africa, India, 

 and the Burmese countries. It is also found in America from 

 Mexico to Amazonia and Peru. 



THE TRUE TIIICIC-KNEES. GENUS CEDICNEMUS. 



GLdicnemus^ Temm. Man. d'Orn. p. 321 (1815). 



Type, CE. adictiemus (Linn.). 



I. THE STONE-CURLEW. CEDICNEMUS CEDICNEMUS. 



Charadrius cedicnemus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 255 (1766). 

 (EdicnefHus crepitims, Macgill. Brit. B. iv. p. 77 (1852); Seeb. 



Br. B. ii. p. 696, pi. xxi. figs. 6, 7 (1884). 

 QLdicnenms scolopax^ Dresser, B. Eur. vii. p. 401, pi. 512 



(1876); B. O. U. List Br. B. p. 155 (1883); Saunders, 



ed. Yarr. Br. B. iii. p. 225 (1884) ; Saunders, Man. Brit. B. 



p. 515 (1889) ; Lil.orJ, Col. Fig. Brit. B. part xxxi. (1895). 

 CEdic/iemus oediaiemus^ Sharpe, Cat. B. Brit. Mus. xxiv. p. 6. 

 {Plate LXXVL) 



Adult Male. — General colour above sandy-buff, with blackish 

 centres to the feathers ; lesser wing-coverts a little more tawny, 

 with broad black streaks; median coveits greyish, mesially 

 streaked with black, tipped also with black, before which is a 

 broad sub-terminal bar of white ; greater coverts white, ashy at 

 the base, and with a broad sub-terminal bar of black ; primary- 

 coverts and quills blackish, with white spots on the middle of 

 the latter, the inner secondaries elongated and tinged with 



