THE STONE-CURLEW 



[ORDER : Charadriiformes. SUBORDER : Limicolce. FAMILY : CEdicnemidce] 

 PRELIMINARY CLASSIFIED NOTES 



[W. FARREN. F. C. R. JOTJRDAIST. W. P. PYCRAFT. A. L. THOMSON] 



STONE -CURLEW \QSdicnemus oedicnemus (Linnaeus); (Edicnemus 

 scolopax (S. G. Gmelin). Thick-knee, Norfolk-plover, nighthawk, night- 

 curlew, great-plover. French, oedicneme criard ; German, europdischer 

 Triel; Italian, occhione]. 



I. Description. The Norfolk-plover can always be distinguished by the 

 great size of the eye, the long yellow legs, and the absence of a hind-toe. The sexes 

 are alike, and there is no seasonal change of coloration. (PL 111.) Length 16 in. 

 [406'4 mm.]. The adult is of a sandy buff colour above, heavily striated with dark 

 brown on the crown, hind-neck, scapulars, wings, and upper tail-coverts, but on the 

 interscapulars the dark central area expands, leaving only a marginal fringe of pale 

 brown, which is finally lost by abrasion. Above the eye is a more or less distinct 

 white band, and there is a white patch below the eye. The minor coverts are 

 crossed by a broad, sharply defined band of white, and patches of white occur on 

 the innermost primaries at the base, and on the outermost near their tips. The 

 central tail-feathers are pale brown, the rest white, tipped black, and with a sub- 

 marginal, irregular, blackish loop in the middle of the feather. The under parts 

 are white, but suffused with pale brown, and striated darker brown in the fore-neck 

 and flanks. Beak greenish at the base, black at the tip ; iris pale yellow, legs 

 chrome-yellow. The fledgling is much paler than the adult, and very sparsely 

 and narrowly striated with darker brown. The white bar across the minor coverts 

 is wanting. The young in down is of a pale sandy buff, with a median line of dark 

 brown along the crown, and semicircular loops of dark brown on the forehead. 

 Two narrow lines of dark blackish brown run along the back, one on either side of 



