Vol. X 

 1893 



Shufeldt on the Chionididce. ICQ 



Nothing worthy of special note upon the structure of the bird 

 appeared after De Blainville's contribution until Mr. Eyton pub- 

 lished some observations twenty-two years afterwards, 1 and he 

 was inclined to place the form near Glareola. Eleven years 

 later Dr. Cunningham examined the larynx and parts of the 

 digestive apparatus of a specimen of Chionis alba, and he re- 

 marked that "the legs present a decided resemblance to ffcem- 

 atopus, and the sternal characteristics are similar." 2 Professor 

 Newton who has both described and figured the egg of Chionis 

 minor has said that it "confirms by its appearance the systematic 

 position of the form \_C. minor\ shown by osteology, its affinity, 

 namely, to the Plovers." 8 The literature of the subject is next 

 materially enhanced by the appearance of the memoir by Doctors 

 Kidder and Coues, 4 and those distinguished writers distinctly 

 dissent from the views of De Blainville and all foregoing authors 

 on the subject, and are lead to believe that "Chionis stands 

 between grallatorial and natatorial birds, retaining slight but per- 

 fectly distinct traces of several other types of structure" (p. 109) ; 

 and further : "We thus find in Chionis a connecting link, closing 

 the narrow gap between the Plovers and Gulls of the present 

 day. In our opinion, this group represents the survivors of an 

 ancestral type from which both Gulls and Plovers have descended. 

 And this opinion is strongly supported by the geographical isola- 

 tion of its habitnt, affording but few conditions favorable to vari- 

 ation" (p. 114). They propose the group Chionomorprue to 

 contain the two known species C. minor and C. alba, the 

 "Chionomorphs" then "constituting exactly the heretofore unrec- 

 ognized link between the Charadrimorphs and Cecomorphs, 

 nearer the latter than the former, and still nearer the common 

 ancestral stock of both." They were further of the opinion that 

 C. minor is "undoubtedly nearest to the ancestral type" and 

 therefore called it Chionarchns minor. Messrs. Sclater and 

 Salvin in their 'Nomenclator' include the Chionididae in their 



1 Eyton, T. C. — Note on the skeleton of the Sheathbill (Chionis alba). Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. XXVI, 1858, pp. 99, 100. 



2 Cunningham, R. O. — On Chionis alba. Jour. Anat. and Phys., Nov., 1869, pp. 

 87-89. 



3 Newton, Alfred — Proc. Zool. Soc, Jan. 17, 1871, p. 57, pi. iv, fig. 7. 



■» Kidder, J. H., and Coues, E.— Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 3, 1876, pp. 85-116. 



