356 BIRDS OF BRITISH BURMAH. 



Order XIV. LIMICOL-E. 



Family (EDICNEMID^E. 

 Genus (EDICNEMUS, Temm. 



706. (EDICNEMUS SCOLOPAX. 



THE STONE-CURLEW. 



Charadrius oedicnemus, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. p. 255. Charadrius scolopax, S. G. 

 Gm. Reise Russl. iii. p. 87, pi. 16. (Edicnemus crepitans, Temm. Man. d'Orn. 

 p. 348 ; Jerd. B. 2nd. ii. p. 654 j Hume, S. F. i. p. 232 ; id. S. F. iii. p. 182 ; Bl. 

 B. Burm. p. 152; Anders. Yunnan Exped. p. 674; Oates, S. F. x. p. 238. 

 CEdicnemus indicus, Salvad. Att. Soc. Ital. Sc. Nat. \iii. p. 380 ; Hume, Nests 

 and Eggs, p. 581 j Armstrong, S. F. iv. p. 340. GEdicnemus scolopax, Dresser, 

 Birds Eur. vii. p. 401, pi. ; Hume fy Dav. S. F. vi. p. 458 ; Hume, S. F. viii. 

 p. 112 j Legge, Birds Ceylon, p. 969. 



Description. Male and female. Forehead, crown, nape, sides of the 

 neck, back, rump, upper tail-coverts, scapulars and lesser wing-coverts ashy 

 brown tinged with rufous, each feather with a black streak down the 

 middle; median wing- coverts with a broad whitish bar and the tips black; 

 greater wing- coverts white, with a broad black bar near the tips of the 

 feathers ; quills black ; the first primary with a large patch of white, the 

 second with a smaller patch ; the later primaries tipped with white ; 

 tertiaries ashy brown, with narrow brown shaft-streaks and the outer webs 

 edged with white ; tail ashy brown, with a broad white band near the tip, 

 above which the feather is blackish, tips black ; a narrow stripe over the 

 eye and a broad band under the eye creamy white ; a moustachial streak 

 brown edged with rufescent ; chin and throat white ; breast rufescent 

 streaked with brown ; abdomen, vent, thighs, axillaries and under wing- 

 coverts white ; under tail-coverts isabelline. 



Iris bright yellow ; eyelids duller yellow ; bill black, with a large yellow 

 patch at the base of the upper mandible extending from the gape to the 

 anterior corner of the nostril ; legs and toes pale yellowish flesh-colour ; 

 claws dark brown. 



Length 15 '5 inches, tail 4' 8, wing 87, tarsus 3, bill from gape 2. 



The Stone-Curlew of Burmah belongs to the smaller race termed CE. in- 

 dicus ; but the variation in size in this species is so great that I do not think 

 the Indian and European birds are separable into two species on the score 

 of size alone. 



This bird is found over the whole of Lurmah in suitable localities, but 

 is nowhere verv abundant. 



