(EDICNEMUS. 595 



Genus (EDICNEMUS. 



Both Brisson and Linnaeus associated the Stone-Curlews with the 

 Plovers, whilst Latham included them amongst the Bustards. Temminck 

 removed them from these birds, and in 1815 established the genus 

 (Edicnemus for their reception, in his ' Manuel d'Ornithologie ' (p. 322) . 

 The Common Stone-Curlew (the Charadrius oedicnemus of Linnaeus) is of 

 necessity the type. 



The Stone-Curlews differ principally from the Bustards in having a 

 rather longer bill, with the chin-angle very conspicuous. The wings are 

 rather more pointed. The tarsus is finely reticulated before and behind. 



This genus contains about eleven species, which are distributed through- 

 out the world, with the exception of North America. They are most 

 numerous in the Ethiopian and Oriental Regions ; two only are inhabitants 

 of the Neotropical Region, and one belongs to the Australian Region. 

 Only one species is European, which is a summer visitor to the British 

 Islands. 



The Stone-Curlews frequent nearly the same places as the Bustards, 

 which birds they resemble closely in their habits. They are partly noc- 

 turnal, and their food consists of worms, frogs, small mammals, insects, 

 &c. Their call-notes are loud and discordant. Their flight is rapid, but 

 somewhat laboured. They make no nest, but choose a slight depression 

 in the soil. Their eggs are two (rarely three) in number*, and are buffish 

 brown in ground-colour, spotted, blotched, and streaked with light and 

 dark brown. 



* In the number of their eggs, as well as in their habits, the Stone-Curlews approach 

 the Bustards rather than the Plovers ; but there can be little doubt that they form a con- 

 necting link between these two families, almost sufficient to justify the union of the 

 Bustards, the Stone-Curlews, the Plovers, and their allies in one great family. 



