(EDICNEMUS. 595 
Genus GADICNEMUS. 
Both Brisson and Linneus associated the Stone-Curlews with the 
Plovers, whilst Latham included them amongst the Bustards. Temminck 
removed them from these birds, and in 1815 established the genus 
Gidicnemus for their reception, in his ‘ Manuel d’Ornithologie’ (p. 322). 
The Common Stone-Curlew (the Charadrius edicnemus of Linnzeus) is of 
necessity the type. 
The Stone-Curlews differ principally from the Bustards in having a 
rather longer bill, with the chin-ang!e very conspicuous. The wings are 
rather more pointed. The tarsus is finely reticulated before and behind. 
This genus contains about eleven species, which are distributed through- 
out the world, with the exception of North America. They are most 
numerous in the Ethiopian and Oriental Regions ; two only are inhabitants 
of the Neotropical Region, and one belongs to the Australian Region. 
Only one species is European, which is a summer visitor to the British 
Islands. 
The Stone-Curlews frequent nearly the same places as the Bustards, 
which birds they resemble closely in their habits. They are partly noc- 
turnal, and their food consists of worms, frogs, small mammals, insects, 
&e. Their call-notes are loud and discordant. Their flight is rapid, but 
somewhat laboured. They make no nest, but choose a slight depression 
in the soil. Their eggs are two (rarely three) in number*, and are buflish 
brown in ground-colour, spotted, blotched, and streaked with light and 
dark brown. 
* In the number of their eggs, as well as in their habits, the Stone-Curlews approach 
the Bustards rather than the Plovers ; but there can be little doubt that they form a con- 
necting link between these two families, almost sufficient to justify the union of the 
Bustards, the Stone-Curlews, the Plovers, and their allies in one great family. 
