OF THE BEITISH ISLANDS. 137 



Genus OXYECHUS, or Wedge=tailed Ringed Plovers. 



Type, OXYECHUS VOCIFEKUS. 



Oxyechus, of Eeichenbach (1852). The birds comprising the present 

 genus are characterised by having two dark bands separated by a white one across 

 the breast, an exceptionally long and wedge-shaped tail, more than half the 

 length of the wing and the inner web of the two outermost tail feathers crossed 

 with one or more dark bands. The hind toe is absent ; the metatarsus is moderate 

 in length, never exceeding twice the length of the culmen. The wings are 

 long and pointed. 



This genus contains four species, confined to the Ethiopian region and the 

 Nearctic and Neotropical regions. Three of these are residents in the former, 

 and one other is distributed over the two latter. The New World species is a 

 very rare abnormal migrant to the British Islands. 



The Wedge-tailed Ringed Plovers are dwellers on the banks of inland rivers 

 and lakes, salt swamps, and inland tidal flats, rather than on coasts, although 

 they appear on the latter to some extent. They resemble the Ringed Plovers in 

 their habits, food, flight and general movements, and are in fact very closely 

 allied to those birds. Three of the species are sedentary, but the fourth the 

 New World representative of the genus is migratory. Their nests are little more 

 than hollows in the ground, and their eggs are double-spotted. So far as is 

 known they are monogamous and gregarious, especially during the non-breeding 

 season. 



