112 



NATURAL HISTORY OF BIRDS. 



and placed near the rails, but the totpl sum of characters seems to demand that the 

 bustards and thick-knees be left with the Limicol«, as a kind of connecting link 

 between these and the rails and cranes. 



The Q^DiCNEMiD^ — in English called thick-knees, stone-curlews, or, better, stone- 

 plovers — have the general aspect of large plovers, with a rather long bill, the gonydeal 

 angle of which is strongly pronounced. The wings are jjoiiited, the tarsi are reticu- 

 lated, and the hind toe absent. The number of forms composing this family is small. 

 Their distribution is inter-tropical on both hcmispliercs, and no sj)ecies belongs to the 

 fauna of North America, while a single species, CEdicncmiis cediciiemus, extends its 

 range into southern and central Europe, including England. Like its congeners it 



i|#SS:^ 







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Fio. 63. — (Edicnemus adienemiu, stone-plover, Uiick-kuoc. 



frequents the lowland heaths and bare lands where it has an unobstructed view all 

 round. Its li.abits are to a great extent nocturnal, and it is particularly at nightfall 

 and on moonlight nights that its clamorous voice is heard when out hi search for food, 

 which consists of insects, snails, etc. 



Mr. C. C. Nuttintr, who collected in Nicar.agua, gives the following account of the 

 Centr.il American species, CE. bistiratus : " This curinus bird is gregarious, and lives 

 in the jiastures surrounding the hacienda, where it makes itself useful by eating the 

 various insects that annoy and injure the cattle. On this account it is jirotected by 

 the inhabitants of the country, and it was only as a particul.ar favor that I could per- 

 suade 'Don Alej.andro' to allow me to shoot a couple of specimens. The bird is 

 exactly like a gigantic plover in appearance and motions, and is frequently seen in a 



