Mr. P. R. Lowe on the Crab- Plover. 323 



and ran into the anterior (bifurcated) portion of the spinal 

 tract so as to be almost continuous with it on each side of 

 the mid-line. As far, then, as can be deduced from a 

 comparative study of the pterylosis of the Crab-Plover, in 

 either the chick or the adult, this peculiar Wader appears 

 to have no close relationship to either the Gulls or 

 Terns. Unfortunately I have been unable to compare the 

 feather- tracts of Dramas with those of Recurvirostra, 

 Hiinantopus, H(smatopus, (Edicnemus, or Stercurarius. A 

 study of the pterylosis of the young chick or embryo in 

 any or all of these forms could hardly fail to be of interest. 

 One thing, however, may be stated here with some assurance, 

 viz. that a study of the pterylosis of the Crab-Plover proves 

 that this form is sharply differentiated from the Charadriidse 

 or the Scolopacidae. 



Osteology. 



So far as I have been able to ascertain, we are indebted 

 to J. Van der Hoeven, a Dutch Naturalist, for the only 

 formal paper on the osteology of Dromas which is available 

 (Arch. Neerl. des Sci. Exactes et Natur. 1868, torn, iii.-iv. 

 pp. 281-295). In this paper the author expressed his 

 belief tliat Dromas had affinities with (Edicnemus ; but, 

 strangely enough, he says, in the same paper, that, of all 

 the skulls of birds which he had examined, he found none 

 with more agreement with the skull of Dromas than that of 

 Hcsmatopus ; and he thought that these two genera came 

 very close to one another. 



Van der Hoeven, in the same paper, quotes Blyth as 

 having expressed the opinion that Dromas was allied to the 

 Terns {cf. ' Prodromus Faunae Zeylanicse,' by E. F. Kelaart, 

 Colombo, 1852, 8vo ; Appendix, pp. 45, 46). Apparently 

 Blyth chiefly formed his opinion on the shape of the bill in 

 the adult and the plumage of the young ; but, whatever 

 factors influenced him, he seems to have been as near 

 (or possibly nearer) the truth as Van der Hoeven. In the 

 ' Hand-list of Birds,' vol. i., Sharpe placed Dromas in his 



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