I c; 8 Shufeldt on the Chionididce. TApril 



THE CHIONIDIDy^. 



{A Review of the Opinions on the Systematic Position of the 



Family .) 



BY R. W. SHUFELDT. 



Ever since the time that I first examined a skeleton of Chionis 

 minor I have held that that species is related, in so far as its 

 osteology is concerned, to the Plovers, and in July, 1891, I pub- 

 lished in the 'Journal of Anatomy and Physiology' (London) an 

 illustrated memoir upon this remarkable type, wherein I said that 

 " Chionis minor probably constitutes one of the links among the 

 Plovers and the Gulls, standing close up to the former and having 

 its nearest living allies in Hivmatopus and such forms as Glare- 

 ola. Recognizing this as we do, we cannot ignore, on the other 

 hand, the impress it has at least received upon its skeleton from 

 the columbo-gallinaceous group, and the Bustards, through the 

 Plovers, seem to offer us a partial clue here, or missing links in 

 the line through Hcmipodiiis, or perhaps, too, in some yet un- 

 known way, through Syrrhaptes, the other connecting forms 

 having passed away, and left us only such conjectures as these to 

 offer upon the position of Chionis in the system" (p. 524). 

 Since the above was printed I have again re-examined my mate- 

 rial and re-read the literature on the subject. My views remain 

 practically unaltered. 



The morphologist need not especially take into consideration 

 the writings of naturalists upon the genus Chionis prior to 1S36. 

 In that year, however, M. De Blainville 1 anatomically examined 

 the best part of a skeleton of a specimen of C. aida, and decided 

 that Chionis was most nearly related to Ilcematopus. My 

 figures and descriptions of the skeleton of C. minor in the 

 'Journal of Anatomy' seemed to me to lend substantial support 

 to the opinion of that learned researcher, and there is no question 

 but that he was pre-eminently correct about his views of the 

 sternum. 



1 Blainville, M. H. D. De— Memoire sur la place que doit occuper dans le systeme 

 ornithologique le genre Chionis ou Bec-en-fourreau. Ann. Sci. Nat. VI, 1836, p. 97. 



