

GRALLATORES. SQUATAROLA. 225 



GENUS SQUATAROLA, Cur. BASTARD PLOVER*. 



GENERIC CHARACTERS. 



Bill rather strong, cylindrical, strait, nearly as long as the 

 head ; the tip, or horny part, about half the length of the 

 whole bill, tumid, and arched, with the tomia bending in- 

 wards. Nasal groove wide; half the length of the bill. 

 Mesorhinium depressed below the level of the tip. Nostrils 

 longitudinally pierced in the membrane of the groove, linear 

 oblong. 



Wings rather long, acuminate ; with the first quill-feather 

 the longest. 



Legs slender, of mean length, naked above the tarsal 

 joint. Feet four-toed, three before and one behind ; front 

 toes joined at their base by a membrane, that portion of it 

 between the outer and middle toe being the longest. Hind 

 toe very small, or rudimental. Tarsi reticulated. 



Plumage thick, close, and adpressed. 



The Bastard Plover, like the Lapwings, was placed in the 

 genus Tringa by some of the earliest systematists-f, on ac- 

 count of its being furnished with a very minute hind toe. 

 It was afterwards placed by TEMMFNCK, BECHSTEIN, &c., 

 with the Lapwings in the genus Vanellus, but as form- 

 ing a separate section, on account of the different character 

 exhibited in the form of the wings. Instead of adopting 



* I have considered it most advisable not to let generic distinction (how- 

 ever necessary) interfere with the English name of Plover, so long attached 

 to this species ; as my ambition has been, in the letter-press of the present 

 work, to construct a popular manual of British Ornithology. 



j- RAY and WILLOUGHBY, however, seem to have known its proper si- 

 tuation, having placed it between the Lapwing and Golden Plover, exactly 

 where it now stands in the natural arrangement. 



VOL. II. P 



