114 A MANUAL OF THE BIRDS OF AUSTRALIA 



Nestling in down. Sooty-brown above, paler below. 



Nest. A depression in the moss. 



Eggs. Clutch, two ; ground-colour dark stone to greenish-buff, spotted, but 

 more at the larger end, with very dark brown to light grey ; others have large 

 irregular markings of light brown ; axis 56 to 59 mm., diameter 40 to 41. 



Breeding-season. June, July ? (Bering Island.) 



Distribution and forms. Throughout the Arctic and Subarctic zones of the 

 Holarctic Region. The variation seen in this species has so confused investigators 

 among Palaearctic forms that Austral-Neozelanic specimens have been incorrectly 

 named. The eastern breeding form is different from the western, but there may 

 be more than one subspecies also breeding in the east ; therefore the only sure name 

 is the one proposed by Mathews as given above, which should be used for Australian 

 and Neozelanic birds at present. 



SUBORDER CHARADR1IFORMES. 



A congregation of Stone-Plovers, Waders (commonly so called), Plovers, Jacanas, 

 Coursers and Pratincoles constitute this suborder, which shows development in many 

 directions from an easily recognisable basis. We have subdivided this suborder 

 into five superfamilies, Burhinoidea, Scolopacoidea, Charadrioidea, Jacanoidea and 

 Glareoloidea, and as we give more study to these higher groupings we recognise 

 that this suborder is due to a misconception of the value of the internal features 

 formally used in so dogmatic a manner, and that, later, revision will be undertaken 

 upon reasonable lines. The anatomists refer continually to generalised features, 

 and misunderstand specialised characters and their value, though they accept the 

 law of recapitulation, which they do not thoroughly understand. By means of the 

 application of this law to external characters and colour pattern we get a good view 

 of the evolution of many forms whose status has entirely puzzled students of internal 

 items only. The Burhinoidea, or Stone-Plovers, are probably the most isolated, 

 though the Jacanas have given a lot of trouble to systematists, and the Pratincoles 

 have met with poor treatment. From the superficial characters of these forms a 

 fairly correct idea of their relationships should have been reached. The Stone- 

 Plovers would appear to be related to the Plovers, while the Jacanas similarly show 

 Vanelline relationship, the Coursers and Pratincoles seeming to have varied in the 

 opposite direction from a similar Vanelline ancestral form. The large congregation 

 of Waders and Plovers have been commonly lumped, though there are valid differential 

 features characteristic of each group which merit superfamily distinction, which is 

 here allotted. The Waders seem to have independently evolved from a pre-Larine 

 ancestor while the Plovers have developed in a different direction ; we can trace 

 the facts in many ways, so that when more knowledge of osteological and anatomical 

 items is attained we may be able to determine more accurately the phylogeny of 

 the groups. 



Osteological items have been little studied in detail : the skull shows a schizogna- 

 thous palate and schizorhinal nasals, though those of the Burhinoidea have been 

 commonly recorded as holorhinal, through a misusage of that term ; the nasals in 

 the Burhinoidea are pseudo-holorhinal, being obviously schizorhinal in development. 

 The presence or absence of basipterygoid processes varies according to the groups, 

 being present in the superfamilies Scolopacoidea, Charadrioidea and Jacanoidea, 

 absent in the Burhinoidea and Glareoloidea. The vomer is variable in shape and 

 the lachrymal bone articulates with the ectethmoid in varying degrees. There 

 are conspicuous supraorbital grooves and occipital foramina in some of the groups. 

 There are fifteen or sixteen cervical vertebrae and the dorsals opisthoccelous, or 

 heteroccelous : the coracoids are generally separated and the posterior border of 

 the sternum two notched ; the furcula is reported as sometimes with and without 



