114 A MANUAL OF THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA 
Nestling in down.—Sooty-brown above, paler below. 
Nest—A depression in the moss. 
Eggs.—Clutch, two; ground-colour dark stone to greenish-buff, spotted, but 
more at the larger end, with very dark brown to light grey; others have large 
irregular markings of light brown ; axis 56 to 59 mm., diameter 40 to 41. 
Breeding-season.—June, July ? (Bering Island.) 
Distribution and forms——Throvghout the Arctic and Subarctic zones of the 
Holarctic Region. The variation seen in this species has so confused investigators 
among Palearctic forms that Austral-Neozelanic specimens have been incorrectly 
named. The eastern breeding form is different from the western, but there may 
be more than one subspecies also breeding in the east ; therefore the only sure name 
is the one proposed by Mathews as given above, which should be used for Australian 
and Neozelanic birds at present. 
SuporpER CHARADRITFORMES. 
A congregation of Stone-Plovers, Waders (commonly so called), Plovers, Jacanas, 
Coursers and Pratincoles constitute this suborder, which shows developmentin many 
directions from an easily recognisable basis. We have subdivided this suborder 
into five superfamilies, Burhinoidea, Scolopacoidea, Charadrioidea, Jacanoidea and 
Glareoloidea, and as we give more study to these higher groupings we recognise 
that this suborder is due to a misconception of the value of the internal features 
formally used in so dogmatic a manner, and that, later, revision will be undertaken 
upon reasonable lines. The anatomists refer continually to generalised features, 
and misunderstand specialised characters and their value, though they accept the 
law of recapitulation, which they do not thoroughly understand. By means of the 
application of this law to external characters and colour pattern we get a good view 
of the evolution of many forms whose status has entirely puzzled students of internal 
items only. The Burhinoidea, or Stone-Plovers, are probably the most isolated, 
though the Jacanas have given a lot of trouble to systematists, and the Pratincoles 
have met with poor treatment. From the superficial characters of these forms a 
fairly correct idea of their relationships should have been reached. The Stone- 
Plovers would appear to be related to the Plovers, while the Jacanas similarly show 
Vanelline relationship, the Coursers and Pratincoles seeming to have varied in the 
opposite direction from a similar Vanelline ancestral form. The large congregation 
of Waders and Plovers have been commonly lumped, though there are valid differential 
features characteristic of each group which merit superfamily distinction, which is 
here allotted. The Waders seem to have independently evolved from a pre-Larine 
ancestor while the Plovers have developed in a different direction; we can trace 
the facts in many ways, so that when more knowledge of osteological and anatomical 
items is attained we may be able to determine more accurately the phylogeny of 
the groups. 
Osteological items have been little studied in detail : the skull shows a schizogna- 
thous palate and schizorhinal nasals, though those of the Burhinoidea have been 
commonly recorded as holorhinal, through a misusage of that term; the nasals in 
the Burhinoidea are pseudo-holorhinal, being obviously schizorhinal in development. 
The presence or absence of basipterygoid processes varies according to the groups, 
being present in the superfamilies Scolopacoidea, Charadrioidea and Jacanoidea, 
absent in the Burhinoidea and Glareoloidea. The vomer is variable in shape and 
the lachrymal bone articulates with the ectethmoid in varying degrees. There 
are conspicuous supraorbital grooves and occipital foramina in some of the groups. 
There are fifteen or sixteen cervical vertebre and the dorsals opisthoccelous, or 
heteroccelous: the coracoids are generally separated and the posterior border of 
the sternum two notched ; the furcula is reported as sometimes with and without 
